Relative transcriptional activity of vrgs and vags in BPSM bacteria recovered from mice lungs versus in vitro BPSM grown in virulent phase.

Mice were infected intranasally with approx. 5×10⁶ CFU of BPSM and the bacteria were recovered from the mice lungs at different time points (3 hours, day 3 and day 7 p.i.). Bacterial RNA extracted and purified from group of 4 mice were pooled and subjected to real-time PCR analysis using primers mapping in the kpsT, vrg6, bvgA, fhaB and ptx genes. RecA gene was used as the endogenous control. Results are expressed as the average RQ ± SD of triplicate versus BPSM inoculum. Dotted line represents RQ equal to 1 relative to BPSM inoculum. Mock-infected mice were used as negative control. The data obtained with two biological replicates are shown. Please refer to S1 Table for Pearson correlation scores between the two independent sets.