Alleviation of Rex repression promotes bacterial survival in acidified bile.

Survival of wt (black), Δbsh (grey), Δrex (blue), Δrex p-rex (light blue) and ΔrexΔbsh (white) normalized to the initial inoculum (dashed line = 1) and expressed as log-transformed CFU per mL of culture. Strains were evaluated for survival 24 hours post-inoculation in BHI supplemented with bile or acidified BHI supplemented with bile under aerobic conditions. Data are the means and ranges of three independent experiments. p values were calculated using a heteroscedastic Student’s t test. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; n.s. p > 0.05. No significant difference was found between the Δbsh and ΔrexΔbsh strains.