Fig. 6

Assessment of capsule production and virulence of C. neoformans. A Capsule production of WT, wos2Δ, and complemented strains measured by India ink staining and differential interference microscopy. Capsule assays performed in LIM at mid-log phase (OD_600nm = 1.0–1.2). Scale bar = 4.5 μm. B Quantification of the ratio between capsule thickness and cell size diameter for WT, wos2Δ, and complemented strains. A minimum of 50 cells were measured for capsule and cell size assays. *denotes significant difference between comparisons to WT by Student’s t-test, asterisks as follows: *P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01. C Quantification of LDH release upon macrophage cell death following co-culture with C. neoformans H99, wos2Δ, and complemented strains grown in YPD. Uninfected refers to macrophage only culture. Macrophages undergone opsonization with antibody 18b7 prior to co-culture. Experiment performed in biological triplicate and technical duplicate