FIG. 7.
PEC can phagocytose and degrade bacteria. (A) Cytospins of kntΔ/Δ and knt+/Δ PEC after 1 h of incubation with fluorescent latex beads. Insets show a three-dimensional reassembly of a stack of confocal images of a single PEC after 240 min of incubation. (B) kntΔ/Δ and knt+/+ PEC were challenged with GFP-expressing E. coli. Unincorporated bacteria were removed by centrifugation, and PEC were fixed after the indicated chase periods. For analysis by flow cytometry, PEC were gated by forward and side scatter and examined for green fluorescence. Unlabeled E. coli cells were used as controls (not shown).