Major seroreactive surface-exposed proteins probed with the serum samples from mice infected with different rickettsia agents.

<p>Eleven major seroreactive SEPs on the microarray slide were probed with the sera from mice infected with <i>R. heilongjiangensis</i> (<i>R. hei</i>), <i>R. sibirica</i> (<i>R. sib</i>), <i>R. rickettsii</i> (<i>R. ric</i>), <i>R. prowazekii</i> (<i>R. pro</i>), <i>R. typhi</i> (<i>R. typ</i>), <i>O. tsutsugamushi</i> (<i>O. tsu</i>) or <i>C. burnetii</i> (<i>C. bur</i>), or with normal mouse sera (Normal). The figure shows the FI value distribution of the 11 proteins. The dash line on each panel reprents the average FI value plus 3 times the SD of each protein probed with normal sera, which was calculated as the cut-off to determine if the reaction was negative or positive. Short bars represent the average FI value of each group. “*”, “#” and/or “$” appear where the average FI value is significantly different from that of the other groups (p<0.05). The average FI values of the groups with the same symbols are not significantly different (p>0.05). Statistical analysis was done by the Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by the Student-Newman-Keuls (SNK) test using software SAS 9.1 (SAS Institute).