Fig. 1: Bacteriocins can overcome competitive exclusion.

a The engineered strain with inactivated cvaC gene produces no bacteriocin. With an intact gene, the strain secretes a bacteriocin, which kills the competing strain. b Co-cultures of the engineered and competitor strain were grown in a microtitre plate. With mutationally inactivated bacteriocin, the faster-growing competitor excludes the engineered strain. Bacteriocin secretion leads to the killing of the competitor and domination by the engineered strain. Each panel includes two replicates, with each point showing the value of individual replicates calculated from plate reader measurements.