FIG 1.

Strain-specific pathogenesis and survival of E. coli in G. mellonella larvae. Bacteria were grown to log phase in LB medium at 37°C. The survival time course represents larvae inoculated with 10³ CFU/larva of UPEC strain CFT073, ABU E. coli strain 83972, or the nonpathogenic E. coli K-12 strain D31. (A) Kaplan-Meier plots of G. mellonella survival after injection with strain CFT073 (UPEC) resulted in higher mortality than injection with the attenuated ABU strain 83972. Mock-injected larvae were used as controls (**, P < 0.005; ***, P < 0.0005). (B) To determine the bacterial survival rate, the E. coli load in the infected larvae was measured at several time points postinfection. For each time point, homogenates of 10 larvae were plated individually on E. coli selective ECD agar plates. The results are shown as a box-whisker plot, with the box representing values from the lower to the upper quartile and the whiskers representing the range. Each experiment was carried out three times with 10 larvae/treatment.