Figure 5. Analyses of factors that contribute to spatial correlations in amino acid synthesis.

A) Shared lineage history leads to similarity in protein levels and promoter activity for all three pathways involved in amino acid synthesis. In all cases, the phenotypic difference between a focal cell and an equidistant cell (δ_ED) is significantly larger than the phenotypic difference between a focal cell and its closest relative (δ_CR). B) Spatial proximity leads to similarity in PheL protein levels and dissimilarity in metA promoter activity. For PheL protein levels the phenotypic difference between a focal cell and an equally-related cell (δ_ER) is significantly larger than the phenotypic difference between the focal cell and one of its neighbors (δ_NB). For metA promoter activities, neighboring cells are less similar than expected based on their relatedness. C) The dissimilarity in metA promoter activity is due to local spatial effects. For metA promoter activity, the difference in residuals between a focal cell and an equally-related cell (δ_ER|_resid) is significantly smaller than the difference in residuals between the focal cell and one of its neighbors (δ_NB|_resid). D) Global spatial effects lead to similarity in PheL protein levels and trpL promoter activity. A-D) Each point corresponds to a microcolony with 117-138 (mean=128) cells, points are horizontally offset. Thick horizontal lines indicate mean, thin lines 95% confidence intervals. Dashed lines indicate the expected value under the null hypothesis. Null-hypothesis rejected with: *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, t-test, n=9 (pheL, metA) or 8 (trpL). See also Figure S5,7.