Fig. 4: Fragmented growth can lead to overturning of inhibition under substrate independence.

a Growth of S. wittichii RW1 (SW) and Pseudomonas Leaf15 (L15) cultured separately or together in 96 well-plates under substrate independence (n = 7, measured from strain-specific fluorescence). For growth on individual substrates, see Supplementary Fig. 7. b Maximum specific population growth rates in suspended growth conditions from culture fluorescence measurements (n = 7; box plots show the median, lower and upper quartiles, and individual data points, with whiskers extending to the most extreme data points not considered outliers). P-values from paired two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. c Total productivity (as cells mL^–1) measured by flow cytometry after 48 h in suspended culture (n = 3 biological replicates with each 7 technical replicates). P-values from two-sided t-tests between mean counts of biological replicates. d Per droplet productivities of either strain in solo and mix fragmented culture at t = 17 h (n = number of observed droplets; normalized to the median of the solo droplets at t = 48 h). P-values from two-sided Wilcoxon rank sum tests. e Strain-specific productivities over time in mix droplets (log₁₀-transformed AF values, three replicates overlaid, each subsampled to 100 droplets), indicating the ca. 10% of droplets with poor growth of either partner. f Comparison of expected vs observed growth of pairs, removing the poorly-growing fractions (i.e., enlarged boxed region in (e)). AF-values normalized by their distribution maximum (roughly equivalent to the median). Paired distributions arbitrarily separated to fractions above or below average productivity properties to facilitate comparison (n = 5 simulations for each time point and observation replicate, n = 3 replicate observations, three time points). P-values from one-sided Wilcoxon sign-rank test including the same grid fraction across all replicates and time points (f-values denote their mean). Expected paired droplet distributions simulated from observed solo droplet growth (assuming no interactions). Source data are provided as source data file.