Fig. 2: Characterization of the ecology and causes of asymmetry.

a Schematic diagram of the method used to create an ordered grid of RGB colonies on agar plate through the use of a liquid handling robot. On the right, images corresponds to passages of the lowest density grid (384). Passaging of plates was done by replica plating. This experiment was executed one time at this density and it was repeated at a higher density as shown in Supplementary Fig. 3. b Quantification of strain coexistence as a function of time for three different initial densities plated in grid format. c Quantification of strain coexistence as a function of time for five different initial densities plated in a random distribution. d Paired competition on agar plates starting from an initial grid at 1536 density. e Quantification of time to takeover for each competing pair. f Diagram illustrating asymmetry in toxin strength in the RPS ecology. Strain R produces strong inhibition of Strain G, Strain G produces intermediate inhibition of Strain B, and Strain B produces weak inhibition of Strain R.