Fig. 5
From: MpsAB is important for Staphylococcus aureus virulence and growth at atmospheric CO2 levels
∆mpsA produces less hemolytic toxin in atmospheric conditions and is less virulent in animal infection models. a Hemolytic toxin production in HG001 and ΔmpsA grown in atmospheric (left) and 5% CO2 (right) at 37 °C after overnight incubation (above) and after cold shock treatment (below). b Kaplan–Meier plot of the survival of Galleria mellonella larvae infected with HG001 and ΔmpsA. Larvae injected with PBS were used as control. Larvae infected with ΔmpsA showed significantly better survival rate compared with the larvae infected with wild-type HG001; ****p < 0.0001 as determined by Log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test. Results are representative of four independent experiments. c Comparison of wild-type HG001 and ΔmpsA in a 48 h intranasal mouse infection model (pneumonia model) in the lung, kidneys, and liver. The bacterial burden of ΔmpsA in the lung was significantly lower (*p = 0.036) compared with HG001. There was no significant difference (ns) in bacterial burden in the kidney and liver between the two strains. The number of bacteria per organ based on determination of CFU in n = 8 (WT HG001) and n = 9 mice (ΔmpsA) is shown. The vertical line indicates the median. The detection limit was 10 CFU per organ. Data were analyzed using two-tailed Mann–Whitney test. Source data are provided as a Source Data file
