FIG 5.

S. aureus lacking all four Msr enzymes is attenuated for pathogenesis in a murine skin infection model. Skin wounds were created on the backs of female 8-week-old BALB/cJ mice and then infected with USA300 wild-type or Δmsr strains. After 2 days of monitoring, the skin lesions were harvested, homogenized, and dilution plated on solid medium to enumerate viable bacteria. Data are means ± standard deviations, and the P value was calculated by Mann-Whitney test.