Experimental competition outcomes between intermediate-cost plasmid RP4 (black bars) and either high-cost plasmid pB10 (left) or low-cost plasmid R64drd (right) (white bars). Plasmid percentage is calculated as the CFU from individual antibiotic-containing agar plates divided by the total CFU from tetracycline plates, multiplied by 100. For all simulations, marker values/bar heights represent means and error bars represent standard deviations, of n = 50 iterations; for experimental data in 4 B , C , F , marker values/bar heights represent means and error bars represent standard deviations, of n = 3 biological replicates. For 4 E – F , white markers indicate individual data points. All competition experiments use recipient strain BW25113-rif. All Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
