FIG 6.
Virulence of Fusarium oxysporum strains in C. elegans AU37 model. (A) Kaplan-Meier survival curves to determine total death of worms caused by F. oxysporum strains (n = 90 worms per fungal strain, results accumulated from 3 different experiments, 3 biological replicates per experiment, 10 worms per replicate). P < 0.0001 for F4 and F4antib compared to all other strains. (B) Kaplan-Meier survival curves to determine the hypha-related death of worms (n = 90 worms per fungal strain, results accumulated from 3 different experiments, 3 biological replicates per experiment, 10 worms per replicate). P = 0.0129 for F4 and F4antib compared to all other strains. (C and D) Comparison of hypha-related and total deaths of C. elegans caused by ISS-F4 (C) and ISS-F3 (D). Total deaths of C. elegans caused by ISS-F4 were significantly higher than the deaths associated with hyphae piercing through the body (P = 0.0102, n = 90, log rank [Mantel-Cox] test). There is no statistical difference between total and hypha-related deaths caused by ISS-F3 (P = 0.2465, n = 90). NB, 293sp is the IMV00293 strain that was isolated from Chernobyl and grown on the ISS for 12 days, and 293gr is IMV00293 that was concomitantly grown for 12 days on Earth.