Fig 4. Inhibition of MGE transmission by transient competence.
(A) Model of a transient competent (“C”) state and cell–cell killing of non-C-state cells. (B) Graph showing the original cell growth curve (no C state), cells entering the C state in a cell-density-dependent manner, then never leaving (k C = 0 and r C = 0); a “bet hedging” strategy (k C = 0, g C = 0.1, r C = 0.5) in which only a fraction of the population is competent for transformation at any one time; cells undergoing small population oscillations (k C = 10−6) and cells undergoing large population oscillations (k C = 10−3) at frequencies determined by r C. (C) Heatmap summarising the outcomes of simulations comparing patterns of growth and competence expression in panel B with different MGEs. Colours are scaled as in Fig 3. Results for two representatives of MH and MV are shown, each associated with different rates of HDT. Transformation at the specified τC rate occurred in the C state, such that the cells that never entered the C state were never competent for transformation. Raw data are tabulated in S1 Data.