Fig. 5

Carbapenem susceptibility profiles of the eight CPKp strains and their NM variants. a. The carbapenem susceptibility of the eight CPKp strains and the NM variants was quantified by E-test. ETP = ertapenem; IPM = imipenem and MER = meropenem. Four out of eight NM variants selected showed an increase in susceptibility towards the carbapenem tested, whereas the NM deriving from CNR149J2, CNR137J2 and KP1 did not show any difference compared to the WT mucoid strain. Only CNR152A1-NM2 showed a different behavior, with decreased susceptibility, particularly against meropenem and ertapenem. b. Carbapenem susceptibility by E-test of the seven NM variants derivatives of CNR152A1. M = mucoid, NM = non-mucoid. Experiments were performed in triplicates. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean (SEM)