Fig. 3: Interconnection between mucoviscosity, survival in human serum and killing of G. mellonella.

a Mutations in cps (KL51) and O-antigen (O3b) loci and associated colony morphologies (morphotypes). Each triangle represents an independent mutation. KL and O-antigen type were determined using the Kaptive database. GEA genes are indicated in bold. b Sedimentation ratios (left) after low-speed centrifugation as a measure of mucoviscosity and bacterial survival in human serum (right), distributed according to phylogeny among isolates. Blue bars denote isolates with wzc missense mutations and white bars denote isolates with translucent colonies. Bars represent means of four biological replicates with 95% CI. Comparison of each isolate to the index was done by one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s T3 multiple comparison. Isolates where two-tailed p < 0.05 are marked with asterisks: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. Boxes next to the phylogeny indicate the virulence group of each isolate, as in Fig. 2b, blue = attenuated, grey = unchanged, red = increased, yellow = different disease progression. Interconnections between c mucoviscosity and survival in human serum, d mucoviscosity and G. mellonella health scores at 48 h post injection, and e survival in human serum and G. mellonella health scores at 48 h post injection. Each dot represents mean values of the isolates based on data in (b). Blue dots indicate isolates with wzc missense mutations and clear dots - non-mucoid isolates. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) with 95% CI and two-tailed p-values are shown. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.