FIGURE 3.

Bacterial counts for B. cenocepacia J2315 wild type and knockout mutants in C. elegans. The CFU number of B. cenocepacia knockout mutants ΔBCAL0154, ΔBCAL3116, and ΔBCAL3135 and their isogenic wild type (WT) strain recovered from the infected worms at different time points (6, 24, 48, and 72 hpi) are illustrated. The bars correspond to mean ± SEM of the number of CFU (log₁₀) per worm from two independent experiments of three replicates each; in each replicate, ingested bacteria were extracted from 10 infected worms. The asterisks represent P-values of the WT counts versus the mutants (unpaired, two-tailed Student’s t-test; ^∗p < 0.05; ^∗∗p < 0.01; ^∗∗∗p < 0.001). Throughout the infection period, the number of ΔBCAL0154 mutants recovered is significantly lower than that of the wild type strain. Disruption of BCAL3116 affected bacterial survival after 24 h of infection. At all-time points tested, ΔBCAL3135 accumulated in C. elegans to a level similar to wild type J2315.