Fig 6

Effects of fimH and ibeA deletion on larval survival, bacterial burden, and bacterial clearance. Survival of larvae infected with (A) LF82 wild-type (WT), LF82ΔfimH, LF82ΔfimH:fimH or (B) LF82, LF82ΔibeA, LF82ΔibeA:ibeA at 2, 24, and 48 hpi. Kaplan-Meier and Mantel-Cox test, followed by a Bonferroni correction test, n = 20. Quantification of bacterial burden and clearance of (C, E) LF82, LF82ΔfimH, LF82ΔfimH:fimH, or (D, F) LF82ΔibeA, and LF82ΔibeA:ibeA in DSS-treated larvae from 2 to 48 hpi. Fish with CFU below the detection limit (10 CFU/fish, dashed line) were annotated as 1 CFU. Significance of difference in burden was analyzed using a Kruskal-Wallis test, n ≥16. Bacterial clearance (percent of fish with a burden of AIEC above the detection limit) was analyzed using a log-rank test. Non-linear regression, first-order decay graph used to model bacterial clearance. *, P ≤ 0.05; **, P ≤ 0.01; ns, not significant; Experiments for the WT and both mutant strains were performed in parallel, and thus, data for the WT strain are duplicated between panels A and B, C and D, and E and F, respectively.