Experimental genital tract infection demonstrates Neisseria gonorrhoeae MtrCDE efflux pump is not required for in vivo human infection and identifies gonococcal colonization bottleneck

• Andreea Waltmann,

  Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9219-6570

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• Jacqueline T. Balthazar,

  Roles Investigation, Methodology, Resources

  Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States

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• Afrin A. Begum,

  Roles Investigation, Methodology, Resources

  Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland, United States

  ⨯
• Nancy Hua,

  Roles Formal analysis

  Affiliation The Emmes Company, Rockville, Maryland, United States

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• Ann E. Jerse,

  Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland, United States

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• William M. Shafer,

  Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliations Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States, The Emory Antibiotic Resistance Center, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States, Laboratories of Bacterial Pathogenesis, Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Atlanta), Decatur, Georgia, United States

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• Marcia M. Hobbs ,

  Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  ¶‡ These authors are joint senior authors on this work.

  Affiliations Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

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• Joseph A. Duncan

  Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  * E-mail: jaduncan@med.unc.edu

  ¶‡ These authors are joint senior authors on this work.

  Affiliations Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4438-2018

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