Dynamic in vivo mutations within the ica operon during persistence of Staphylococcus aureus in the airways of cystic fibrosis patients
Fig 9
Competition and starvation experiments comparing non-mucoid and mucoid S. aureus isolates from patients 7 and 8.
A and C) Competition growth experiments between the non-mucoid and mucoid strain pairs of patients 7 and 8 with fitness values indicated on top of the graph. During co-culture, the non-mucoid strain of patient 7 out-competed the mucoid strain, while for the strains of patient 8 no significant difference could be observed. B and D) The same strain pairs of patients 7 and 8 were compared concerning survival under nutrient limited conditions for 48h. For both patients, the mucoid strains survived significantly better during starvation compared to the non-mucoid strains. Data were generated by performing three biological with two technical replicates. Graphs show the average of three biological replicates with error bars indicating the standard deviation. Statistical analysis of the generated data was performed using an unpaired two-tailed t-test. * p-value ≤ 0.05; ** p-value ≤ 0.01; *** p-value ≤ 0.001.