Figure 7.
A mathematical model for the Rhamnose/β-glucan composition as expression of virulence. With an increase in reported virulence, the rhamnose proportion rise and β-glucan decreases. This observation fit to an exponential curve with an R2=1, that could be expressed as a linear equation: ρ=−0.049(β)+2.7, where β represents the β-glucan composition and ρ=Ln(Rha), where Rha is the rhamnose cell wall percentage. This model might be useful to predict the virulence level employing the β-glucan and rhamnose percentage ratio. This mathematical expression infers the highest rhamnose percentage to 15% (β=0) and for the lowest rhamnose percentage (1%) β=55.1%.