Pervasive Selection for Cooperative Cross-Feeding in Bacterial Communities
Fig 2
Auxotrophic and cross-feeding genotypes are selectively favored under a broad range of conditions.
Shown are representative simulation results after 100 simulation steps. Parameters analyzed include the benefit-to-cost ratio where the experimentally determined values were computationally in- or decreased (x-axes), the degree of metabolite diffusion in the environment (y-axes) ranging from low (structured environment) to high (unstructured environment), and the environmental availability of amino acids (A,B) including (A) no amino acids are available in the environment, and (B) substantial additional availability of amino acids in the environment. Color-code of genotypes: red = wild type, blue = amino acid overproducer, yellow = amino acid auxotrophs (2 types), green = cross-feeding genotypes (2 types).