Fig 3. Phenotypic delay decreases the probability of a bacterial infection surviving antibiotic treatment.

(a-b) A schematic of the simulated infection: a population of exponentially replicating sensitive cells is exposed to an antibiotic when the population reaches 10⁷ cells. Only phenotypically resistant cells survive the antibiotic. Time and antibiotic concentration in panel (b) have arbitrary units. (c) The probability of survival for the effective polyploidy mechanism is independent of the doubling time (and hence the ploidy). (d) For the dilution mechanism, the probability of survival decreases with the number of molecules n which need to be diluted out before the cell becomes phenotypically resistant. (e) In a combined dilution-and-effective polyploidy model, the survival probability increases with the doubling time.