Fig. 6. Only P. aeruginosa and S. Typhimurium show viable population growth in co-cultures with plasmid-carrying E. coli plus antibiotics.

Abundance (CFU/ml) of each antibiotic-susceptible species excluding E. coli after 24 h incubation is shown for three replicates in pure culture without antibiotics, in pairwise co-culture with the plasmid-carrying E. coli without antibiotics, or in pairwise co-culture with the plasmid-carrying E. coli with antibiotics. The red bars represent the median values for each condition. Note the detection limit in the antibiotic treatment here is quite high (5 × 10⁶ CFU/ml; below detection limit is signified as “BDL” on y-axis), due to the density of plasmid-carrying E. coli in those cultures.