Fig. 1

PMA-seq identified viable microbes in simple synthetic communities. a Expected community structures of our ten live/dead Escherichia coli and Streptococcus sanguinis mixtures before and after PMA treatment: group (1) 100% live E. coli; 100% E. coli after PMA treatment; (2) 100% dead E. coli; 0% E. coli after PMA treatment; (3) 100% live S. sanguinis; 100% S. sanguinis after PMA treatment; (4) 100% dead S. sanguinis; 0% S. sanguinis after PMA treatment; (5) 50% live E. coli and 50% live S. sanguinis; same proportion after PMA treatment; (6) 50% dead E. coli and 50% dead S. sanguinis; no nucleotides after PMA-treatment; (7) 50% live E. coli, 25% live S. sanguinis and 25% dead S. sanguinis; 67% E. coli and 33% S. sanguinis after PMA treatment; (8) 25% live E. coli and 25% dead E. coli; 50% live S. sanguinis; 67% S. sanguinis and 33% E. coli after PMA treatment; (9) 50% live E. coli, 50% dead S. sanguinis; 100% E. coli after PMA treatment; 10) 50% dead E. coli and 50% live S. sanguinis; 100% S. sanguinis after PMA treatment. b DNA quantity (ng) (top) and 16S rRNA gene copy numbers (bottom) of the 10 synthetic cultures with and without PMA treatment. Error bars represented the standard deviations. c Relative abundances of synthetic community members by PMA-seq before and after PMA treatment. Each experiment was carried out in quadruplex