Table 2. Regulation of selected known virulence genes in mutants compared to the WT. The effects of various mutations on expression of lipC (lipase C), toxA (exotoxin A), exsA (master regulator of T3SS), compared to the control (pilS) were detected by qRT-PCR. Shown is the mean ± standard error. Student's t-test where *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001.

Mutant	Fold change compared to WT
PA14	lipC	toxA	exsA	lasB
fleQ	−1.54 ± 0.17	1.29 ± 0.12	−1.89 ± 0.10****	−1.89 ± 0.24***
fleR	1.10 ± 0.03	1.45 ± 0.21	−2.16 ± 0.09***	−1.33 ± 0.15***
fleS	−1.57 ± 0.10	−3.36 ± 0.28***	−2.74 ± 0.48****	−2.25 ± 0.23***
pilS	−1.03 ± 0.05	1.55 ± 0.39	−1.42 ± 0.22	−1.7 ± 0.36
PAO1
fleR	−1.13 ± 0.28	−1.45 ± 0.02	−2.7 ± 0.89**	−2.42 ± 1.64
fleS	1.15 ± 0.27	−1.45 ± 0.47	−3.49 ± 0.37***	−2.84 ± 0.66**