Figure 5

Immunomodulating and signaling capacity of the L. plantarum TA mutants. Panel A displays NF-κB pathway activation relative to L. plantarum WCFS1, as measured by a luminescence reporter in HEK cell lines expressing TLR-2/6 after exposure to PAM3CSK (positive control), purified WTA (5.0 μg/ml, see Additional file 4: FigureS2 and Additional file 5: FigureS3 for concentration ranges) and/or L. plantarum WCFS1, the tagO, tagF1-2, or dltX-D mutants. The ratios of HEK reporter to bacterial cell were 1:15. All strains were grown in triplicate and each culture was applied three times to the assay. Bars represent averages of these nine measurements with standard deviations. Letters a-d represent classes of statistically different responses as determined by ANOVA multiple comparison. Panel B displays cytokine levels secreted by monocyte derived iDCs stimulated with LPS (positive control), L. plantarum WCFS1, and the tagO, tagF1-2 and dltX-D mutants. The ratios of dendritic to bacterial cells were 1:10. All strains were grown in duplicate and each culture was applied in duplicate to the assay. Bars represent averages of these four measurements with standard deviations. Individual letters (a-c) represent classes of statistically significant different responses as determined by restricted maximum likelihood analysis, whereas “bc” represents a class not significantly different from “b” nor “c”.