Figure 1

- Growth of H. influenzae strains with either free heme or the heme-hemun serum albumin complex as the sole heme source. Growth of the nontypeable H. influenzae strain 86-028NP and the tonb insertion mutant strain HI2280 in hdBHI supplemented with heme or heme-human serum albumin as the sole heme source. Wildtype strain 86-028NP with heme at 10 μg ml^-1 (solid circles) and with heme-human serum albumin at 50 ng ml^-1 heme equivalent (open circles). The tonB mutant strain HI2280 with heme at 10 μg ml^-1 (solid triangles) and with heme-human serum albumin at 50 ng ml^-1 heme equivalent (open triangles). Results are mean ± SD for quintuplicate results from representative experiments. Using the Mann Whitney test to compare growth of 86-028NP and HI2280 over the entire 24 hour growth period in either heme source P < 0.0001.