Fig 9. Role of gpa11 and gpa12 in the virulence of M. circinelloides.
A) Survival of diabetic mice infected intraperitoneally with 2 × 107 sporangiospores from different M. circinelloides strains recorded each day post-injection. N = 8, two independent experiments. Relative expression of inflammation markers B) IL-6, C) IL-1β, D) MIP-2, E) TNF-α used to monitor tissue damage in the liver and lung of mice infected with spores from the different M. circinelloides strains (N = 4). F) Fungal burden, determined by qPCR, from the liver and lung of infected mice. Three independent experiments were performed for each condition. Statistically significant differences are indicated by different letters (ANOVA and Fisher’s tests; p ≤ 0.05).