Metabolic byproduct utilization and the evolution of mutually beneficial cooperation in Escherichia coli

Understanding how cooperation evolves in microbial populations, particularly under environmental stress such as antibiotic exposure, remains a key topic in evolutionary biology. Here, we investigate cooperative interactions between antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-sensitive strains of Escherichia coli. Under antibiotic stress, a small number of antibiotic-sensitive strains rapidly evolve into antibiotic-resistant strains. Resistant E. coli produce indole, which induces a protective response in sensitive cells, enabling them to survive in antibiotic stress conditions. In turn, antibiotic-sensitive E. coli could help reduce toxic accumulation of indole, indirectly benefiting the resistant strain. Indole is harmful to the growth of the antibiotic-resistant strain but benefits the antibiotic-sensitive strain by helping turn-on the multi-drug exporter to neutralize the antibiotic. This mutual exchange leads to increased fitness for both strains in cocultures, demonstrating a mechanism by ..., , , # Metabolic byproduct utilization and the evolution of mutually beneficial cooperation in Escherichia coli

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pc866t20s](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pc866t20s)

## Description of the data and file structure

Reference Information

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Provenance for this README

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\* File name: README_file.txt

File/Folder Details

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Details for: Data.xlsx

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\* Description: a comma-delimited file containing population densities, intra- and extracellular indole concentrations, and relative gene expression levels for all Escherichia coli in the study.

\* Format(s): .xlsx

\* Size(s): 54.3 KB

Details for: Data.xlsx__Figure1

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*methods:

A total of 5 µl of overnight E. coli-S culture (OD600 ~ 1.0), grown from a single colony, was inoculated to 5 mL LB liquid mediums at a norfloxacin concentration of either 0, 50, 100, or 150 ng ...