Fig 8. scfAB is required for soft tissue infection and dissemination.

Pure cultures of GAS 5448 and isogenic ΔscfA, ΔscfB and ΔscfAB mutants were individually inoculated (T₀) subcutaneously into CD1 mice and total CFU counts were determined from lesions excised at 48 (A) and 120 (B) HPI to monitor infection, as well as from spleens harvested at 48 HPI (C) to assess dissemination compared to wild type GAS 5448. Unpaired student’s t-test was used to evaluate the significance of differences between groups; a p value of <0.05 (*) or <0.01 (**) was considered statistically significant.