FIG 4.

Competition experiments show the relative importance of P. aeruginosa metabolic genes in tap water and freshwater. (A) Competition in tap and pond water. (B) Competition in 1/2R2B (R2) and MOPS pyruvate glucose media (M). Competition experiments were conducted comparing wild-type PA14 to isogenic deletion mutants with deletions of betBA, eutB, or dht. The ratios of WT to mutants at time zero (T₀) are shown in the gray bars, while tap water (blue bars) and freshwater (green bars) are shown for 24 h. The dotted line marks a WT-to-mutant ratio of 1:1. Data were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA with a Dunnett's posttest, as described in Materials and Methods comparing each competition to the T₀ ratio. n.s., not significant; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001. All ratios in panel B are not significantly different from the input ratio.