For every locus, expression pathway and gene ontology, we estimated dN/dS between unrelated S. aureus. There was no relationship between dN/dS and enrichment of protein-altering substitutions between nose-colonizing and infection-causing bacteria in (A) loci, (B) ontologies nor (C) pathways (non-significant correlations, p>0.05). When we incorporated variability in dN/dS between genes in the gene set enrichment analyses, the results were robust for (D) loci, (E) ontologies and (F) pathways, showing only small differences in significance (-log10
p-value) between the analyses that correct for locus length only (horizontal axes) and those that correct for locus length and dN/dS (vertical axes).