FIG. 1.
Skin and liver infection caused by wild-type and fadR V. vulnificus in iron dextran-treated mice. Mice were inoculated s.c. with approximately 103 CFU of wild-type V. vulnificus FLA399 (WT) or 104, 105, 106, 107, or 108 CFU of fadR::mini-Tn5Km2phoA mutant FLA602. At up to 22 h postinfection, mice were euthanized, and skin and liver were sampled for quantification of V. vulnificus. Skin lesions were not observed with inocula of 104 CFU for the fadR mutant. Liver infection was detected only with an inoculum of 107 CFU. For samples with no detectable bacteria, the minimum detectable value was assigned for statistical analysis. Fractions beneath the bars indicate the numbers of mice that yielded detectable numbers of bacteria from the skin or liver samples over the number of inoculated mice. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences in number of CFU/g tissue or temperature between mutant and wild-type infections (*, P < 0.05; **, P ≤ 0.01; ***, P ≤ 0.001; ANOVA with Bonferroni's posttest). Daggers indicate statistically significant differences in number of samples yielding bacteria between mutant and wild-type infections (†, P = 0.04; ††, P = 0.002; χ2 test).