Fig. 7: Phase variable regions in B. theta genome alter their orientation in response to growth in distinct carbon sources. DNA was extracted from B. theta cells that grew on carbon sources with significant differences in their immune-modulatory effects.

a Heatmap of Z-scores calculated for invertible regions with sufficient reads from B. theta cells grown in each carbon source. |Z-score| ≥ 2 is marked with #, samples with no sufficient reads are colored in gray. b–g Box plots of each region with significant differences in the ratio of reverse orientation between distinct carbon sources and visualization of the invertible regions. Genes are marked as arrows and colored based on their assigned function, with inverted repeats marked with black lines. “ON”/”OFF” orientation is marked on the y-axis. h Principal component analysis of all immune parameters and all phase variable regions. Carbon sources are colored by the number of saccharides in each carbon source. b–g B. theta was grown in each carbon source in 3 ≤ n ≤ 6 biological repeats. b–f Ordinary one-way ANOVA using Tukey’s multiple comparisons test, g Brown-Forsythe and Welch ANOVA, using Dunnett’s T3 multiple comparisons test. Box plots limits represent the upper quartile and the lower quartile, the central line represents the median, whiskers represent the maximum and minimum. *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01, all exact p-values are listed under “P-values” sheet in the Source Data file. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.