Fig 4.

Individual prophage affects bacterial motility and biofilm formation. (A) Quantification of twitching motility in P. aeruginosa ZS-PA-05 and its prophage deletion mutants, measured by colony area (cm²) following 3 days of static incubation at 37°C. (B) Representative images of the twitching motility assay stained with crystal violet. (C) Swarming motility quantification in P. aeruginosa ZS-PA-05 and prophage deletion mutants, determined by colony area (cm²) after 16 h of static incubation at 37°C. (D) Swimming motility quantification in P. aeruginosa ZS-PA-05, determined by colony area (cm²) after 16 h of static incubation at 37°C. (E) Schematic representation of the gene sequence of prophage WX-3. The orange arrow indicates the gene encoding trpG. The locus of the trpG gene in the ZS-PA-05 genome is located between positions 698316 and 698921 bp. (F) Swarming motility and (G) swimming motility quantification in wild-type ZS-PA-05, ΔpqsR, and a mutant lacking trpG, as well as ΔWX-3. (H) Representative images of biofilm formation in P. aeruginosa ZS-PA-05 and its prophage deletion mutants visualized with crystal violet staining and quantified via optical density measurement (I). Error bars represent standard deviation (n = 3). Statistical significance is indicated as follows: *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001.