Fig. 6: Relationship between adhesion and phage transduction.
a Schematic representation of the methodology used in (b, c). An initial population of the ZΔMDA expressing the PilEZ4 variant was incubated in cell culture media or in the presence of epithelial or endothelial cells. In the former case, bacteria were collected (control). In the latter two cases, only adherent bacteria were collected. b The proportion of bacteria expressing a PilES3 variant was quantified by qPCR in the three populations. c The three resulting populations were transduced with MDA(orf6-aadA1)Φ and the transduction rates were determined (arb. units: arbitrary unit). d Schematic representation of the methodology used in (e–g). An initial population of the ZΔMDA expressing the PilEZ4 variant was incubated in transduction media and collected (control) or transduced with MDA(orf6-aadA1)Φ and selected on spectinomycin (transduced). e Determination of the proportion of bacteria expressing a PilES3 variant in the two populations by quantification by qPCR. Comparison of the adhesion of the two populations on epithelial cells (f) and endothelial cells (g). Data were expressed as a percentage of the control population. b, e qPCR was performed three times independently (n = 3). c, f, g Experiments were performed three times in duplicate independently (n = 3). Dots coloured black, grey and white in b, c and e–g represent the results from each experiment, respectively. Statistical analyses were performed using a Brown–Forsythe and Welch ANOVA test (two-sided) with Dunnett correction for c, an unpaired t-test (two-sided) for f, g, and data were expressed as mean ± SEM. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
