Global Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Small RNAs Affecting Neisseria meningitidis Bacteremia
Fig 5
Effects of sRNA deletions on meningococcal infection.
(A) Northern blots experiments validating the deletion of the indicated sRNAs. RNA was extracted from 2996 wild type (WT) and relative deletion strains grown until stationary phase for all sRNAs, except for Bns1/1563-1564_F for which the growth condition was minimal medium supplemented with glucose. 16s rRNA is provided as a loading control. (B) Competitive index (CI) from infant rats infected with WT N. meningitidis 2996 and the indicated sRNA KO strains at a 1:1 ratio. Solid circles indicate individual animals. Horizontal solid and dashed black lines indicate means and medians for each group, respectively. A horizontal dotted line is set to CI = 1, indicating no effect on meningococcal infection due to deletion of the respective sRNAs. The number of animals in each group and the results of statistical analysis are shown above the graph (2-tails, unpaired T-test analysis were performed to assess the statistical significance for each group of CIs to be different from 1; * = pval ≤ 0.05, ns = no statistical significance). (C) Table summarizing result of CI index assay with statistical analysis.