Fig. 3.

PqsE restores virulence in nematode, plant and animal infection models in the absence of AQs. A. Caenorhabditis elegans killing assay showing the percentage of nematode survival after 1–6 days of exposure to the P. aeruginosa PAO1 wild type, pqsA pqsEind mutant and pqsA pqsEind mutant transformed with the vector control, pUCP18 or pUCPpqsE respectively. The average of four independent experiments is reported with standard deviation. B. Virulence of the wild type, pqsA mutant and pqsA mutant complemented with pqsE in the lettuce leaf virulence assay. The number of bacterial cells (as colony forming units, cfu) present in 1 mg of lettuce midrib 5 days post injection is shown. Error bars were calculated from five independent experiments. A representative picture of infected midribs is also shown for each strain. C and D. Mouse acute burn wound infection showing the survival rate over time (days after burn/infection) for mice infected with (C) the P. aeruginosa wild type (▵), pqsA (□) and pqsE (○) mutants; 15 mice per mutant and (D) the P. aeruginosa pqsA mutant (□) and the pqsA mutant transformed with either pUCP18 (○) or pUCPpqsE (▵); nine mice per mutant.