Fig 6. The effect of TE disruptions on the long-term outcome for prophage sequences.
In panels A through C, the average number of genes of each type per prophage is plotted against time. As the transposition rate is increased relative to the selective advantage of the beneficial gene, the long-term prediction for the population changes from persistence (panel A) to parasitism (panel B) and finally to extinction (panel C). Panels D through F show the average number of TE disruptions sustained in genes of each type versus time. TEs accumulate in neutral genes but are limited in functional genes due to purifying selection. Results are plotted for 20 randomly chosen replicate simulations (colored lines) and for the mean across 100 replicate simulations (black lines). For each replicate, a population of 10,000 bacterial genomes was simulated for 20,000 bacterial generations, over which time each of these long-term outcomes remained stable; here we illustrate the initial approach to these long-term states. Parameter values are: (A and D) rS = 0.52, rT = 0.009. (B and E) rS = 0.01, rT = 0.01. (C and F) rS = 0.002, rT = 0.1. In all cases, rI = 1, rL = 1.2, rD = 0.001, nB = 1, nE = 1, nR = 8 and nN = 1.