I am testing the phenotypes of bacteria from an experimental evolution experiment. I am growing two or three that had the same starting founder in mixed culture for 24 hours.
My goal is to check if one strain competitively inhibits the growth of another in these mixed cultures. I check the proportion of each bacteria in the mixed culture at the start and the end of the experiment by PCR. I also check for difference in growth rate.
My question is how take into account differences in growth rate? Do i take ratios of strain A growth rate/strain B growth rate and use that to correct number of each kind of bacteria at the end of the experiment? I was planning on doing t-tests on these corrected proportions but was hoping to get some expert opinions...
Thank you.