Figure 3. Central metabolic changes in the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP).

Antibiotic treatment of A. baumannii ATCC 19606 significantly decreased the levels of three PPP metabolites (D-sedoheptulose 7-phosphate, D-erythrose 4-phosphate, and D-ribose 5-phosphate) that are essential anabolic precursors of related pathways. The combined colistin/doripenem significantly decreased the levels of the three precursor metabolites at all the time points. Additionally, 2-deoxy-D-ribose 5-phosphate significantly decreased followed by the combination at 1 hr and 4 hr. In the pathway flow chart (adapted from biocyc.org with reference to E. coli K-12), blue boxes indicate the metabolites that were significantly decreased and red boxes indicate the metabolites that were not significantly changed. Box plots indicate upper and lower quartiles (top and bottom of box); median (line within box); and the spread of data that are not outliers (whiskers). *≥1.5-log₂-fold, p ≤ 0.05, FDR ≤ 0.1 (one-way ANOVA).