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. 2021 Nov 30;12(6):e03099-21. doi: 10.1128/mBio.03099-21

FIG 5.

FIG 5

Elongasome function is essential for cell integrity during LOS deficiency. Chemical inhibition of PBP2 of the elongasome with 1,000 μg/mL of mecillinam of actively growing (added after 2 hours of growth) LOS-containing or LOS-deficient A. baumannii 19606 strains. (A and B) Two hours of exposure to mecillinam caused the same cell rounding for LOS-containing or LOS-deficient A. baumannii 19606 strains, suggesting elongasome activity was inhibited similarly. Phase-contrast microscopy imaged at ×100 magnification and all fields of view were resized as indicated for insets in Fig. 2. A 2-μm scale bar is provided. (C) Averages of triplicate growth curves of mecillinam-inhibited (open symbols) compared with LB-cultured (closed symbols) strains for the wild-type 19606 (circles) strain and 19606 LOS-deficient strain (triangles). Lysis of the 19606 LOS-deficient strain was evident after 6 hours of exposure to mecillinam (8 hours of growth). (D) Averages of triplicate growth curves of mecillinam-inhibited (open symbols) compared with LB-cultured (closed symbols) strains for the 19606 ΔmlaE ΔpldA (circles) and 19606 ΔmlaE ΔpldA LOS-deficient (triangles) strains. The 19606 ΔmlaE ΔpldA LOS-deficient strain grows somewhat with mecillinam inhibition, but lysis was evident after 8 hours of exposure (10 hours of growth). (E) Calculated percentage of growth of mecillinam--treated cultures compared with respective LB-untreated cultures.