Pervasive Selection for Cooperative Cross-Feeding in Bacterial Communities
Fig 4
Metabolic cross-feeding increases genotypic diversity within bacterial populations.
Mean Shannon-Weaver diversity indices (H ± standard deviation) of simulated populations with varying benefit-to-cost ratios (BCR) are shown. Simulations were performed in the presence (blue line) or absence (red line) of environmentally supplemented amino acids in (A) spatially structured (i.e. low diffusion) and (B) unstructured environments (i.e. high diffusion). The dashed line indicates the maximally achievable diversity index for six genotypes. Asterisks indicate significant differences between the amino acid supplemented- and unsupplemented environment for a given BCR (FDR-corrected two-sample t-test: *** P < 0.001, ns: P > 0.05, n = 50).