Figure 1.

Scatter plots of mathematical descriptors of mutualism (Z_mu), antagonism (Z_an), aggression (Z_ag), and altruism (Z_al) against the actual strength of mutualism (M_u) (a), antagonism (A_n) (b), aggression (A_g) (c), and altruism (A₁) (d) across 100 interspecific pairs of strains from E. coli and S. aureus at three distinct phases of microbial growth (lag, log, and stationary). Dots represent observations of different interspecific strain pairs at each time point. Note that the mutualism dots are those strains whose abundance is larger in co-culture than monoculture for both species, whereas the antagonism dots are those strains whose abundance is larger in monoculture than co-culture for both species. The relationship between two variables is roughly fitted by a curve, with correlation coefficient (r) given within each plot