Data for: Gorter et al.,2021. Experimental evolution of interference competition. Frontiers in microbiology.

The importance of interference competition, where individuals compete through antagonistic traits such as the production of toxins, has long been recognized by ecologists, yet understanding how these types of interactions evolve remains limited. Toxin production is thought to be beneficial when competing with a competitor. Here, we explore if antagonism can evolve by long-term selection of the toxin (pyocin) producing strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 in the presence (or absence) of one of three clinical isolates of the same species (Recipient) over ten serial transfers. We find that inhibition decreases in the absence of a recipient. In the presence of a recipient, antagonism evolved to be different depending on the recipient used. Our study shows that the evolution of interference competition by toxins can decrease or increase, experimentally demonstrating the importance of this type of interaction for the evolution of species interactions.

These files contain the data and scripts used for statistical analyses.

干扰竞争（interference competition）指个体通过产生毒素等拮抗性状开展竞争，其重要性早已为生态学家所认可，但学界对这类相互作用的演化规律仍认知有限。当与竞争者对峙时，毒素的产生被认为具有适应性收益。本研究旨在探究：在三种同物种临床分离受体菌株（Recipient）存在或缺失的条件下，对产脓菌素（pyocin）的铜绿假单胞菌（Pseudomonas aeruginosa）PAO1菌株开展为期十次连续传代的长期选择，拮抗作用是否会发生演化。研究发现：在无受体菌株的情况下，菌株的抑菌活性会逐渐降低；而在有受体菌株存在时，拮抗作用的演化方向会因所用受体菌株的不同而出现差异。本研究表明，毒素介导的干扰竞争的演化程度可升高或降低，实验证实了这类相互作用在物种互作演化中的重要价值。

本数据集包含统计分析所需的实验数据与代码脚本。