Fig 5. ΔtamA is more susceptible to clearance by host defenses during lung infection and bacteremia.

(A) Mice were inoculated intratracheally with 10⁸ CFU of wild type or ΔtamA strains and mouse survival was monitored over 7 days (n = 14). **, p < 0.01 by Gehan-Breslow-Wilcoxon test. (B) The bacterial burden in lungs at 4, 28, 42 h after intratracheal inoculation (n = 12 for each group and time point). P_E, a wild type strain with an empty pACYC177_aadA plasmid; ΔtamA_E, ΔtamA with an empty pACYC177_aadA plasmid; ΔtamA_C, ΔtamA with a complementary plasmid, pTam. Bar graphs represent geometric means. ns, not significant; *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001, by unpaired multiple t test on log10 transformation. (C) Mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with 10⁷ CFU of wild type or ΔtamA strains and survival was monitored over 7 days (n = 10). **, p < 0.01 by Gehan-Breslow-Wilcoxon test. (D) Wild type and ΔtamA strains were mono-cultured in normal human sera without or with heat inactivation. Bar graphs represent geometric means. **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001, by unpaired multiple t test on log10 transformation.