Table 2.

Consortium response in different spatial structures.

Incubation condition	Average cell-to-cell distance	Producer + receivers (~21%), receivers only (~79%)		Non-producer + receivers (~21%), receivers only (~79%)
		Beads with growth	Average fluorescence of grown cells	Beads with growth	Average fluorescence of grown cells
No diffusion from beads	15 µm	14 ± 1%	80 ± 11%	16 ± 0%	17 ± 4%
Diffusion from beads, no competing glucose consumers	15 µm	75 ± 7%	131 ± 6%	6 ± 1%	1.3 ± 0.4%
Diffusion from beads, competing glucose consumers	15 µm	15 ± 3%	−3.5 ± 4.7%	9 ± 2%	−4.5 ± 2.7%
	0 µm	3 ± 2%	39 ± 7%	4 ± 2%	−0.7 ± 10%

Summary of the experimental results of Fig. 3. The columns “beads with growth” give the percentage of beads that were gated as “growth” (n = 3, mean ± sd) for co-cultures of producers and receivers (corresponding to the density plots in Fig. 3B₁, D₁, D₃, F₁), and for co-cultures of non-producers and receivers. The columns “average fluorescence of grown cells” give the fluorescence of grown cells on a scale of 0–100% (n = 3, mean ± sd). The median of the log(average fluorescence of grown cells) of the producer-control sample was set to 0% and the median of the log(average fluorescence of grown cells) of the receiver-control sample to 100%. A higher percentage indicates more growth of receiver cells. The average fluorescence of grown cells can exceed the value of the receiver-control sample (see for example Fig. 3D₂), causing the percentage to be higher than 100%. Corresponding density plots are shown in Fig. 3B₂, D₂, D₄, F₂.