Fig. 4: S. aureus causing co-infection with COVID-19 pneumonia evolved to gain EA-Agr phenotype.
From: Altered genomic methylation promotes Staphylococcus aureus persistence in hospital environment
a A maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree and isolation timeline of S. aureus causing co-infection with COVID-19 pneumonia (COVID-19-related S. aureus). The resistant genes identified in each isolate are indicated in brackets. b Normalized RNAIII expression in 4-hour cultures of COVID-19-related S. aureus under high or low aerated conditions. Red: Agr positive, Orange: EA-Agr S.aureus. n = 3 for each strain. The dots represent the number (n) of biological measurements. Data are presented as mean values +/− SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, n.s. not significant, Kruskal-Wallis test with two-tailed Dunn’s post-hoc test. c Rate of Agr positive, agr mutant, and EA-Agr S. aureus in hospital-isolated and skin-isolated S. aureus. All clinical isolates are derived from different patients. ***p < 0.001, two-tailed chi square test.
