FIG 2.

WTA production affects the cytolytic activity of S. aureus. (a and b) WTA gels and ImageJ quantification, verifying the differing levels of WTA produced by the wild-type LAC strain, an isogenic mutant of LAC with no WTA (LAC ΔtarO), and a mutant of LAC with intermediate WTA (LAC tarFK::Tn). Each dot represents one biological replicate (n = 3), error bars represent the standard deviation, and statistical significance was determined by an unpaired t test. (c and d) THP-1 cell lysis upon incubation with supernatants harvested from bacterial overnight cultures. The toxicity of the isogenic mutant set demonstrates that lower levels of WTA production affect the cytolytic activity of S. aureus. This effect was complemented by expressing the respective genes from the pRMC2 plasmid. Each dot represents one biological replicate (n = 5), error bars represent the standard deviation, and statistical significance was determined by a paired t test.