Fig. 2. Lysine methylation is critical for R. parkeri pathogenesis.

(A) Survival of Ifnar^−/−Ifngr^−/− mice intravenously infected with 5 × 10⁶ WT bacteria (n = 5 mice, WT; n = 6, pkmt1::tn and pkmt2::tn). Statistical comparison between WT and mutants was performed using a log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. Mice were humanely euthanized if body temperature dropped below 32.2 °C. (B) Weight changes of mice infected in (A). A two-way ANOVA from 0 to 25 days post-infection (dpi) with Sidak’s post hoc test was used to compare the pkmt1::tn and pkmt2::tn mutants. (C) Eschar lesion score for Ifnar^−/−Ifngr^−/− mice intradermally infected with 1 × 10⁶ bacteria (n = 6, WT; n = 7, pkmt1::tn and pkmt2::tn) (24). (D) Images of mice infected intradermally in (C), at 10 dpi. Arrows indicate eschar (WT, left) or injection site (pkmt1::tn, right). Scale bars, 1 cm. Photo credit: Patrik Engström, UC Berkeley. (E) Survival of the mice infected in (C). (F) Weight changes of the mice infected in (C). A two-way ANOVA from 0 to 25 dpi with Tukey’s post hoc test was used to compare strains statistically in (C) and (F). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ****P < 0.0001. All data are means ± SEM.