Figure 2.

Psh-Dependent Toll Pathway Activation versus Microbial Proteolytic Activity

(A) Extracellular proteolytic activity of Gram-positive bacteria (blue), fungi (green), and Gram-negative bacteria (red) grown to early stationary phase was determined on the non-specific substrate AzoDye collagen (15 mg/mL) in 0.1 M TrisHCl buffer (pH 8). Data represent means ± SEs of three independent experiments.

(B) Psh-dependent induction of drs expression upon immune challenge (OD₆₀₀ = 10) from Figure 1 was correlated to the respective proteolytic activity determined on AzoDye collagen.

(C and D) Extracellular proteolytic activity and Psh-dependent induction of drs expression were determined under the same conditions as above for E. faecalis serine protease E (SprE) and gelatinase (GelE) null mutant strains (C) or for the P. aeruginosa elastase (LasB) null mutant (D) and expressed relative to the values obtained from the respective parental strains.

Data represent means ± SEs of three independent experiments.