The effectiveness of MGE strategies for reducing elimination by transformation.

(A) Heatmap summarising the outcomes of simulations comparing the patterns of cellular competence shown in Fig 4C in the presence of the MGE MI (top row), which has properties intermediate between those of MH and MV. The colour of each cell represents the proportion of the population infected by the MGE over the course of the simulations. In the second row, the same simulations are performed, but in this case the MGE MI_NT inhibits transformation in the host cell. The bottom two rows show the outcome of simulations in which both MI and MI_NT infect the same population. (B) Heatmap summarising the outcomes of simulations comparing cell growth patterns with different MI activation patterns: f, the normal rate of activation, is either low (0.005) or high (0.5), as is f_C, the rate of activation in C state. (C) Heatmap summarising the same simulations shown in panel B, but for MI_NT. (D) Competition between MI_NT operating with its optimal strategy (f and f_C low) and MI operating with its optimal strategy (f low, f_C high). Both MGEs were allowed to infect the same population in these simulations. The heatmap shows the ratio of strains infected with MI_NT to those infected with MI when cells grew and expressed competence for transformation under different strategies. Raw data are tabulated in S1 Data.