FIG 2.

Abilities of C. muridarum with or without mutations in tc0668 and/or tc0237 to spread to the GI tract and induce hydrosalpinx in the genital tract. (A) The same C. muridarum organisms were used to infect C3H/HeJ mice as described in the legend to Fig. 1. (B) At various time points postinoculation, as indicated on the x axis, both vaginal (graphs a, d, g, j, m, and p) and rectal (graphs b, e, h, k, n, and q) swabs were taken for titration of live organisms from the genital and GI tracts, respectively, and the recovery of live organisms is expressed as log₁₀ IFU counts per swab, as displayed on the y axis. (C) The hydrosalpinx score and incidence data are from Fig. 1. Note that although wild-type and mutant C. muridarum organisms displayed similar courses of live-organism shedding from the mouse genital tract, mutant C. muridarum organisms developed significantly delayed/reduced courses of shedding from the same mouse GI tracts, the latter of which correlated with reduced hydrosalpinx severity and incidence. n.s. stands for not significant compared to the wild-type clone, *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01 (for pathology comparison, see the legend to Fig. 1; for IFU comparison, b versus e, h, k, n, or q, area under the curve, or individual time points, Wilcoxon rank sum test).