Fig. 1: Convergence of community structure and gene expression.

a–d Growth curves of E. coli and P. putida in monoculture (a) and the “1:1000”, “1:1”, “1000:1” cocultures (b–d). In b–d subplots, the growth curves of monocultures were placed on the background layer (dashed lines), and the significant differences in cell quantity between coculture and corresponding monoculture were shown (ns, non-significant; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01). e, f Ratio of E. coli to P. putida in cocultures converged at 24 h. e Real-time ratio of EC/PP at 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 24 h. f Analysis of the difference of EC/PP ratios (24 h) between cocultures. g, h Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of gene expression profiles of E. coli (g) and P. putida (h) in monoculture and three cocultures. The analysis was conducted separately for each species, with a transformed, normalized read counts using DESeq2. In the plots, the samples (3 replicates, indicated by hollow dots) with the same treatment (indicated by text annotations) form a number of triangles filled with transparency colors. The centroids of the triangles, i.e., the average values of corresponding replicates, are denoted by solid points.