While studying the importance of several potential virulence factors produced by the dreaded pathogen, Timithious beckmaneous, you conduct survival curve analysis. The wild-type strain of T. beckmaneous yields an average time-to-death of 9 hours. A mutant strain of T. beckmaneous lacking only the gene encoding the protein BcubT yields an average time-to-death of 12 hours. A mutant strain of T. beckmaneous lacking only the gene encoding the protein TbnkS yields an average time-to-death of 6 hours. From these data alone, which of the following is most true? a. BcubT is important for T. beckmaneous lethal infection, and, TbnkS is NoT important for T. beckmaneous lethal infection
b. TbnkS is important for T. beckmaneous lethal infection, and, BcubT is NoT important for T. beckmaneous lethal infection
c. BcubT is important for T. beckmaneous lethal infection, and, TbnkS is important for T. beckmaneous lethal infection
d. The wild-type strain of T. beckmaneous is less virulent than either a mutant strain of T. beckmaneous lacking only the gene encoding the protein BcubT, or, mutant strain of T. beckmaneous lacking only the gene encoding the protein TbnkS
e. TbnkS is NoT important for T. beckmaneous lethal infection, and, BcubT is NoT important for T. beckmaneous lethal infection