Fig. 5. Higher initial spatial association degree of an asymmetric functional complementary pair (AFCP) facilitated its winning.

A When the two AFCPs evolved nearly simultaneously, the initial relative association degree of the two AFCPs showed significant positive correlation with the outcomes of competition. We selected the replicates in Fig. 4B–D, whose TIME GAP was below the dividing value (see Fig. 4C). PAI_prior:second values were calculated from the communities when the TFLG member of the second AFCP emerged (t₂, see Fig. 4A), while PAI_prior:second > 1 means the prior emerged AFCPs are more spatially associated than the second AFCPs. Red dots indicate the first to emerge AFCP won the competition in the corresponding replicate, while the green dots indicate the second to emerge AFCP won the competition. B Two typical examples of simulations initialized with premixing the two types of AFCPs, [0, 0, 1] & [1, 1, 0] and [0, 1, 0] & [1, 0, 1], which represent scenarios when initial PAI_001:010 < 1 and >1, respectively. C The significant positive correlation between the winning frequency of pair [0, 0, 1] & [1, 1, 0] and the initial value of PAI_001:010. When initial PAI_001:010 > 1, final communities were more likely to be dominated by pair [0, 0, 1] & [1, 1, 0], oppositely, pair [0, 1, 0] & [1, 0, 1] were more favorable when PAI_001:010 < 1. Running parameters for (B) and (C): mutation rate = 0, α = 0.001, and β = 0.8. Simulation protocol of (C) was described in Methods section.