Fig. 4. Gene expression change in S. aureus metal acquisition system in the host liver compared with culture medium.

a, b Time course of expression changes in the iron acquisition systems (a) and the divalent cation acquisition systems (b) in S. aureus-infected liver compared with culture medium. The values in the box show fold-change compared with S. aureus cultured in the TSB medium and boxes filled with red indicate >40-fold change. The asterisk *. **, and *** indicate FDR p-values < 0.05, <0.01, and <0.001, respectively. c, e Genome structure around mntA gene (c) and cntK and cntE (e). d, f, g Mouse-killing ability of a disruption mutant of the mntA (d), cntE (f), and cntK gene (g), respectively. Bacterial suspensions were intravenously injected. The Data were presented combined independent two experiments (n = 12 for d, g, n = 11 for f). Injection doses were 3.8 × 10⁷ for wild-type of d, g, 3.5 × 10⁷ CFU for wild-type of f, each 3.8 × 10⁷ CFU for ∆mntA, 4.0 × 10⁷ CFU for ∆cntE and 3.8 × 10⁷ CFU for ∆cntK, respectively. Statistical analyses were performed by Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test (c: p = < 0.0001, chi square = 24.72, df = 1, d: p = < 0.0001, chi square = 24.38, df = 1, e: p = < 0.0001, chi square = 22.78, df = 1).