F2 and pertussis: The clinical relevance of PRN-deleted strains has not been precisely defined (80), but children infected with these strains do not have more severe pertussis (91, 92), In contrast, B. pertussis strains with the enhanced PT promoter allele PTP3, instead of the common PTP2 allele, were found to produce greater amounts of PT (74) and cause more severe disease in younger infants (92).