A comparison of the groups (‘early’ [15 min, 30 min and 60 min] and ‘late’ [4 hrs and 10 hrs]) post H37Rv-infection and post Δ-mce1 H37Rv-infection showed that there was a significant difference in the level of transcription for all genes analysed by RT-QPCR when comparing the post ‘early’ H37Rv-infection vs. the post ‘early’ Δ-mce1 H37Rv-infection groups (excluding Ifnb1 [P = 0.651]), and the post ‘early’ H37Rv-infection vs. post ‘late’ Δ-mce1 H37Rv-infection (including Ifnb1) [all had a P-value of <0.001]. The gene discussed is IFNB1; the disease is infection.