Figure 2. Expression of 5 sRNAs and tmRNA in 16 Staphylococcus aureus isolates from patients with bloodstream infections (nonsevere sepsis or septic shock) and asymptomatic colonized carriers (carriage), Rennes, France. A) sprA; B) sprB; C) sprC; D) sprD; E) sprX; F) tmRNA. Isolates were derived from ST5, ST8, and ST25. Expression was measured by using Northern blotting after strain isolation and culture. Total RNAs were obtained during early exponential (E), late exponential (L), and stationary (S) growth phases. Horizontal lines indicate medians of expression for each growth phase and sRNA. tmRNA was used as reference sRNA for subsequent quantitative PCR analyses that monitored expression levels of other sRNAs because its expression is stable for all isolates at each growth phase. Black dots indicate carriage strains at E growth phase; black squares indicate carriage strains at L growth phase; black triangles indicate carriage strains at S growth phase; inverted black triangles indicate strains causing sepsis at E growth phase; black diamonds indicate strains causing sepsis at L growth phase; circles indicate strains causing sepsis at S growth phase; squares indicate strains causing shock at E growth phase; triangles indicate strains causing shock at L growth phase; inverted triangles indicate strains causing shock at S growth phase. ST, sequence type; sRNA, small RNA; spr, small pathogenicity island RNA; tmRNA, transfer–messenger RNA.