Fig. 6: Mouse sepsis model reveals sets of genes essential for the establishment of S. aureus invasion into organs.
From: Environmental cues in different host niches shape the survival fitness of Staphylococcus aureus
a Mice (BALB/c, 8-week-old, male) were infected with 2×108 CFU of the USA300 Tn library via tail vein injection. Mice were euthanized at 24 h post-infection upon which organs were collected and prepared for Tn-seq. Image created in BioRender (Lee, W. (2025) https://BioRender.com/c7082qe). b Log10 of bacterial CFU, % TA sites (TA sites detected in experimental samples out of all the TA sites in the genome), and HTR scores (\(\frac{\%\;{\rm{TA\; sites}}}{{\log }_{10}{\rm{CFU}}}\)) are presented in a table. The organs were classified into three groups (high CFU (log10CFU > 5) – high HTR (HTR > 4); high CFU – low HTR (HTR < 4); low CFU (log10CFU < 5) – low HTR). Image created in BioRender (Lee, W. (2025) https://BioRender.com/ngl11mx). c Gene read counts from lungs and liver were plotted against the read counts of the respective genes of a control Tn library. Representative genes are marked on the plot. Source data is available in the Source Data file. d Genes essential for intracellular survival (2 h), plasma survival (36 h), and survival in organs (both liver and lungs) are compared in a heat map (red squares: genes for which the 4 or 8 h post-infection read counts were used because they were either defined as late essential or were not depleted at 2 h but rather at other time points; blue squares: genes for which the 0 h read counts were used because they were defined as early essential). e Gene clustering analysis was performed using the seaborn, clustermap Python package (v.0.12.2) using all genes from d, but aroB, menA, and menD were excluded since they were early essential genes that do not appear at 2, 4, or 8 h post-infection. f The numbers of genes that are specifically and commonly essential for intracellular, blood, and organ survival are presented in a Venn diagram, and the 27 core genes that are essential for infection in all three host environments (intracellular, blood, and intra-organ) are listed in a table.
