FIG 2.
RocA reduces the abundance of multiple GAS transcripts. (A to C) Summary of RNA-seq data. Shown are pairwise comparisons of the transcriptomes between the parental M1 strain MGAS2221 and the rocA deletion mutant derivative 2221ΔrocA (A), between MGAS2221 and the complemented mutant derivative 2221ΔrocA::rocAM1 (B), and between 2221ΔrocA and 2221ΔrocA::rocAM1 (C). The relative expression levels of all the genes are graphed, with each represented by a circle. Select mRNAs of interest are colored and labeled. (D) TaqMan-based quantitative RT-PCR data confirming that RocA regulates the abundances of virulence factor-encoding mRNAs. The abundances of select transcripts were determined from duplicate exponential-phase GAS cultures run in triplicate, with the mean (±standard deviation) shown. The hash tag highlights the lack of rocA transcript in the rocA deletion mutant strain. The asterisks highlight statistical significance relative to the parental M1 isolate (t test; P < 0.05).