Figure 4

S. aureus clonal population dynamics. S. aureus enters the body and is phagocytosed by macrophages. The majority of S. aureus are killed in the phagolysosome vacuole, but a small proportion may survive to divide, expanding clonally until the bacteria escape from the macrophage to form clonal microabscesses, which can then either seed local abscesses, be re-phagocytosed by macrophages, or be phagocytosed by other immune cells, such as neutrophils. S. aureus may also establish secondary foci and disseminate to distant sites.