Fig. 4

In-tube competition assay. a Co-cultures of conditional defector and cooperator (comlasR⁺) at different initial ratios were grown in M9-casein (0.5%) broth for 24 h. Shown are the proportion of conditional defector (bars) and the percentage lasB expression (line) compared with a comlasR⁺ pure culture. b Co-cultures of defector (ΔlasR) and cooperator at different initial ratios were grown in M9-casein (0.5%) broth for 24 h. Shown are the proportion of defector (bars) and the percentage lasB expression (line) compared with a comlasR⁺ pure culture. c Co-cultures of defector and conditional defector at different initial ratios were grown in M9-casein (0.5%) broth for 24 h. Shown are the proportion of defector (bars) and the percentage lasB expression (line) compared with a conditional defector pure culture. d Relative fitness of conditional defector in panel a. e Relative fitness of defector in panel b. f Relative fitness of defector in panel c. Data shown are the mean values ± SD of three independent experiments. C, cooperator; CD, conditional defector; D, defector