Figure 3

Growth and induction of gene expression by ManNAc. (A) Growth of S. pneumoniae strains on CAT medium supplemented with 10 g/L of ManNAc: FP65 (open squares), nanAB-deficient mutant (open triangles), and SPG1583-regulator deletion mutant (closed circles). (B) Growth of FP65 on CAT medium without added sugar (closed squares) and supplemented with ManNAc 10 g/L (open squares). The white and black arrows indicate samples taken for quantitative Real Time-PCR. Gene expression analysis of the genes coding for NanA the ABC transporter SPG1598, the PTS transporter SPG1592, and the ABC transporter SPG1591 is shown in panel C and D. Panel C refers to fold changes in transcriptional levels at OD 0.02 in medium with or without ManNAc (for sampling see closed arrows in panel 3B). Panel D refers to analysis of sequential samples (OD₅₉₀ = 0.02 and OD₅₉₀ = 0.05) of bacteria grown in ManNAc (for sampling see open arrows in panel 3B). The fold changes are reported as mean from independent triplicate or quadruplicate experiments. Two-tailed Student t test was used for analyse statistical significance (*, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01). Generation time on unsuplemented CAT medium is 40 min and on ManNAc 140 min.