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Fig. 2 Quantitative analysis of LPS and PGN and ultrastructural observation of the cell wall of V. alginolyticus. (A) Quantitative analysis of LPS and PGN in V. alginolyticus HY9901, hcp2 mutant, and hcp2 complement strains. (B) The pellet state and the solubility of V. alginolyticus HY9901-ev, Δhcp2-ev, and Δhcp2-com strains in 5% SDS lysis buffer before ultrasonication. The mutant strain displayed a phenotype of increased susceptibility to lysis, yielding a lysate that was notably more transparent compared with the wildtype and complemented strains. (C) Comparison of cell wall ultrastructure in V. alginolyticus HY9901-ev, Δhcp2-ev, and Δhcp2-com strains. The TEM results showed that the hcp2 mutant strain had a lower electron density of the outer membrane and a more blurred boundary with the periplasm compared with wildtype strain. The phenotype defect caused by the loss of hcp2 was partially rescued in the complemented strain. HY9901-ev: the wildtype strain carried with pBBR1-MCS1 empty vector; Δhcp2-ev: the Δhcp2 strain carried with pBBR1-MCS1 empty vector; Δhcp2-com: the Δhcp2 strain carried with pBBR1-MCS1-hcp2 vector. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001. ns, no significance.