Figure 7

Colonization and attachment attenuation of the tatABC mutant N169-dtatABC. A. Colonization competitive ratio in suckling mouse model (left column, from 12 mice) and attachment competitive ratio for HT-29 cells (right column, from 6 repeats); B to D, Confocal imaging of the attachment of wild type strain N16961 (B), the tatABC mutant N169-dtatABC (C), and the complement strain N169-dtatABC-cp (D) to cultured HT-29 cells. The bacteria (green) were immunostained with FITC-labeled antibodies as described in Materials and Methods. HT-29 cells (red) were identified by Evan's blue staining.