Figure 6.

An in vivo competition assay to determine relative fitness of mutants in the mouse gut. (a) SGH10 and SGH10ΔlacZ, (b) SGH10ΔrmpA and SGH10ΔlacZ, (c) SGH10ΔwcaJ and SGH10ΔlacZ, (d) SGH10Δwza and SGH10ΔlacZ and (e) SGH10Δwzy and SGH10ΔlacZ. Bacteria were inoculated into wild‐type C57/BL6J mice via oral gavage at a starting ratio of 1:1 in order to determine if the mutant of interest is less fit than, or outcompetes SGH10ΔlacZ. At appropriate intervals, the mutant of interest and SGH10ΔlacZ were quantified in mouse stool to determine the CI of these strains in the gut. Mean ± Standard Error of the Mean (SEM) were plotted and * denotes p < .05, while n.s. denotes not significant. A CI value of 1 is taken to denote that the strains are equally fit. A CI value of <1 indicates that the mutant of interest is less fit than SGH10ΔlacZ, while a CI value of >1 indicates that the mutant is more fit than SGH10ΔlacZ