Fig. 4

Mechanisms 1 and 2 are important for virulence in Galleria mellonella. a Survival of G. mellonella larvae infected with the retS mutant strains. *Indicates strains showing significantly attenuated virulence compared to PAO1 (P < 0.01, Mantel-Cox Log Rank with Bonferroni’s correction for multiple comparisons). b The retS point mutations have no phenotype in a ΔgacS background. *Indicates strains showing significantly attenuated virulence compared to PAO1 (P < 0.01, Mantel-Cox Log Rank with Bonferroni’s correction for multiple comparisons). c Complementation of the ΔretS mutant by overexpressing RetS(T428A,HDA). *Significantly more virulent than the ΔretS-pJN105 strain (P < 0.01, Mantel-Cox Log Rank with Bonferroni’s correction for multiple comparisons). a–c The mechanisms absent from each strain are indicated in grey circles (except in the ΔgacS background strains that lack the target of these mechanisms). Three independent experiments were conducted each with ten larvae per strain (30 larvae in total per mutant). The inoculum was 20–40 CFUs per larvae