Fig 5.

Pilus phase variants require S-pilin cleavage for competence A. Transformation efficiencies of naturally occurring P- antigenic variants with pilE variants that encode frameshift mutations resulting in early stop codons. B. Transformation efficiencies of P- strains resulting from antigenic variation events from donor silent loci 2c4 and 3c1 coupled with either the S-pilin cleavage mutation (L₃₈L₃₉A₄₀-AAM) or the control mutation (S₄₅A₄₆V₄₇-TMA). 3c2, 2c4/3c1, 2c4 indicate silent loci which donated sequence to the variant. CmR = Cm^R parental strain, *p<0.05 **p<0.001 Student’s T-test.