FIGURE 2.

Mouse lethality and colonization activity of the V. vulnificus strains. A, 7-week-old specific pathogen-free female ICR mice were intragastrically infected with the wild type (WT) or the gbpA mutant (gbpA) (Table 1) at doses of ∼10⁹ cfu as indicated. Mouse survival was monitored for 24 h. B, four mice were intragastrically infected with an inoculum prepared by mixing equal numbers of MORR and KK141 (Table 1), and then the bacterial cells colonized on the small intestine were enumerated as cfu at the indicated time intervals. Each circle corresponds to the ratio of cfu recovered from the intestines to the cfu inoculated (the colonization index) for an individual mouse. The median values are displayed as a solid line (MORR) or dashed line (KK141) on the graph. WT, wild type; gbpA, gbpA mutant; MORR, wild type with rifampicin resistance; KK141, gbpA mutant with rifampicin and streptomycin resistance.