Fig. 2From: A passive mutualistic interaction promotes the evolution of spatial structure within microbial populationsExperimental evolution of the mutualistic consortia. Sixteen replicate mutualistic consortia were assembled from the egfp-expressing BW25113 (∆proC) and echerry-expressing BW25113 (∆trpC) mutualistic partners (red symbols) or from the echerry-expressing BW25113 (∆proC) and egfp-expressing BW25113 (∆trpC) mutualistic partners (green symbols). Total cell numbers were then measured as OD600 and tracked over time. After the mutualistic interaction was imposed, ten consortia improved in growth performance over evolutionary time while six consortia went extinct, suggesting that different consortia undergo different evolutionary trajectoriesBack to article page