Fig. 2: Guinea pig infection reveals increased virulence following LPS elongation.
From: Natural reversion promotes LPS elongation in an attenuated Coxiella burnetii strain
Guinea pig body temperature (A) and change in body temperature (B) following a 105 GE C. burnetii infectious dose. Guinea pig body temperature (C) and change in body temperature (D) following a 106 GE C. burnetii infectious dose. Fever is indicated by a dotted line at 39.5 °C. Body weight change following a 105 (E) or 106 GE (F) infectious dose at the time point associated with most severe weight loss in the NMI control group (days 5 and 4, respectively). Black dotted lines indicate the mean percentage in saline control groups. For A–F, groups are indicated as follows: closed circle:saline, X:NMI, open square:NMC, open circle:NMII, yellow circle: NMI ∆dot/icm, yellow circle: NMII ∆0533, purple circle:NMII-E1, purple square: NMII-E2. Spleen weight normalized to body weight following a 105 (G) or 106 GE (H) infectious dose following euthanasia (day 14). Gray blocks represent mean saline group values. I Splenic outgrowth following three ACCM-2 passages as assessed via qPCR following a 105 GE infectious dose. J Splenic outgrowth following 3 ACCM-2 passages as assessed via qPCR following a 106 GE infectious dose. K LPS profiles of splenic outgrowth following NMII, NMII P0, and NMI infection (105 GE) as assessed via immunoblot. L LPS profiles of splenic outgrowth following NMII ∆0533, NMI ∆dot/icm, and NMII-E2 infection (106 GE) as assessed by immunoblot. For E–H, differences in group means were assessed using two-sample Welch t-tests, allowing for unequal variances between groups. For each comparison, we computed Wald-type 95% confidence intervals and described statistical significance with two-sided p-values. For all graphs, horizontal bars indicate the group means and error bars represent the group standard deviation. Animal group n = 6. * indicates p < 0.05 and ** indicates p < 0.1. Source data are provided as a source data file.
