Role of serine catabolism in <i>C. jejuni</i> 81-176 mouse colonization.

<p>Shown is the colonization efficiency of <i>C. jejuni</i> 81-176 wild-type (black diamonds) and its isogenic <i>sdaA</i> mutant strain (white diamonds) in a murine model of infection. The colonization of the intestine (A) and liver (B) was evaluated 5 weeks after oral or intraperitoneal co-infection of myd88^−/− nramp^−/− mice, respectively. Each pair of black and white diamonds represents the CFU numbers of the <i>C. jejuni</i> 81-176 wild-type strain and its <i>sdaA</i> mutant recovered from the indicated organs of an individual animal. The combined results of one (A) and two (B) independent infection experiments are shown. The Mann–Whitney U test ( = <i>Wilcoxon rank-sum test)</i> was used to calculate the P values for the statistical differences between the CFU numbers of the different strains: P<0.05 (A) and P<0.001 (B).