Spatio-temporal modeling of the crowding conditions and metabolic variability in microbial communities
Fig 4
Dynamics of the community E. coli—S. enterica with metabolic variability.
(A) Fitness and (B) relative abundance of meth+ computed after 26 h. Three different initial crowding conditions were tested: 2% (Δz = 0.18 mm), 20% (Δz = 0.018 mm), and 40% (Δz = 0.009 mm), with initial frequencies of 70, 60, and 50 meth+ cells. Closed symbols represent simulations where the crowding effect was taken into account, while open symbols represent simulations where the crowding was neglected. (C) Snapshot of the spatial distribution of cells in one simulation repetition at t = 0h and t = 26 h. Only 1 out of 20 bacterial spots, colony A, where inoculated with 70 meth+ cells, the initial crowding conditions were set as 40%. (D) Dynamics of the relative abundance of the species predicted in 20 different regions of the system (the time is represented on the x axis of each quadrant, while the relative abundance is on the y axis). Error bars show the standard deviation in five independent simulations.