Fig. 3.

Folic acid supplement breakdown supports E. coli growth. Bacterial lawn growth, under PABA-depleted conditions, of E. coli WT, ΔpabA, ΔabgT ΔpabA and ΔpabA (abgT OE) on DM plates supplemented with (a) folic acid, (b) PABA-glu and (c) PABA as measured by OD₆₀₀ after 4 days growth at 25 °C (see Methods). Each data point is the average of 8 plates. Error bars represent standard deviation. Asterisks denote the test statistic from Student’s t test comparison of means, where ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01,*p < 0.05 compared to ΔpabA growth on the comparable condition