Fig. 4

Wild-type and pilus mutant COH1 strains have equivalent growth kinetics in murine blood. In vitro blood survival assays were performed with mid log phase GBS corresponding to wild-type COH1 (WT) and mutant COH1 strains lacking the backbone protein of pilus 1 (Δbp-1) or of pilus 2b (Δbp-2b). Bacteria were added to mice fresh blood and incubated at 37 °C. The number of viable bacteria was assessed every 30 min up to 7 h. Each GBS strain was run in triplicate for each time point. No significant differences could be observed among the tested strains