Figure 5

Evidence for variation of specific stringent response genes associated with change in resistance to neutrophil-killing. (A) Pneumococcal genes assumed to be involved in the stringent response pathway were identified by searching the KEGG Orthology groups that contain stringent response genes in E.coli (K07177, K03086, and K07816). To test the effects of sequence variation in a target gene, a pair of pneumococcal carriage isolates that are serotype-matched, closely related, but differ substantially at the target gene were identified. (B) The carriage isolates were subjected to the non-opsonic neutrophil-mediated killing assay. Mean survival rates are shown (n = 10 for each strain). Error bars represent SEM. The p-values were derived from t-tests.