Image processing data, micrographs, and confocal microscopy images of printed arrays containing E. coli

This data record consists of 300 data files and a single ReadMe file (readme.docx).

The following file types are included:

143 data files in .tif file format.

141 data files in .mat file format.

13 files in .czi file format.

1 file in .jpg file format.

2 files in .png file format.

The files include the raw data supporting all figures and supplementary figures in the manuscript including micrographs and processing.

Matlab (.mat) files include data on image processing and segregation index (SI) calculations.

Czi and tif files are confocal microscopy images of printed arrays containing E. coli.

All 13 .czi files are also provided as openly accessible .tif files.

.png files are stereomicroscope images of two side-by-side spotted colonies of E. coli.

The .jpg file is a photograph of 1 euro coin and a printed array (7 x 8 x 1 droplets x, y, z-dimensions) containing E. coli BZB1011 sfgfp::Tn7 submerged in 600 µL of 1 x M9 salts medium contained within a quartz cuvette (10 mmx 10 mm x 10 mm; x, y, z dimensions).

Detailed descriptions of what is contained in each file, are included in the readme.docx document.

Bacteria often live in diverse communities where the spatial arrangement of strains and species is considered ciritcial for their ecology, including whether strains can coexist, which are ecologically dominant, and how productive they are as a community. However, a test of the importance of

spatial structure requires manipulation at the fine scales at which this structure naturally occurs.

In this study, the authors developed a droplet-based printing method to arrange different bacterial genotypes across a sub-millimetre array. They used this to test the importance of fine-scale spatial structure by printing strains of the gut bacterium Escherichia coli that naturally compete with one another using protein toxins.

The following techniques are described in more detail in the related article: preparing aqueous phases, preparing lipid/oil solutions, construction of recombinant DNA, construction of bacterial strains, competent cells preparation and transformation, growth curves and analysis, growth inhibition assay, preparation of bioinks, printing bacterial droplet networks containing bacteria, creating printed arrays containing bacteria from printed droplet networks, bacterial competition experiments within printed arrays and imaging of results, colony-forming units of printed arrays, flow cytometry of printed arrays, microcolony quantification by image analysis and calculation of segregation indices.

Software needed to access data: The .mat files can be accessed using Matlab (R2017a). The .czi files can be analyzed and visualized with Carl Zeiss' ZEN software.