PTS sugar-dependent virulence gene expression requires sugar uptake.

Bacterial cultures contained the indicated carbon sources (glucose, GlcNAc, sucrose) plus lactate to maintain growth. Strains tested for the expression of the indicated genes (relative to the housekeeping gene gyrA) were: wild-type (WT), and the respective PTS mutants for glucose (ΔptsG), GlcNAc (ΔnagE), and sucrose (ΔscrA) in the absence (−) or presence (+) of bicarbonate as virulence inducer. Average of at least three independent experiments (± SD) are depicted. Statistics were applied using Student's t-test comparing the WT (+) and Δpts (+) conditions (* P≤0.05; ** P≤0.01; *** P≤0.001; ns, not statistically different).PTS sugar-dependent virulence gene expression requires sugar uptake.