Coexistence of phage and bacteria on the boundary of self-organized refuges

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Bacteriophage are voracious predators of bacteria and a major determinant in shaping bacterial life strategies. Many phage species are virulent, meaning that infection leads to certain death of the host and immediate release of a large batch of phage progeny. Despite this apparent voraciousness, bacteria have stably coexisted with virulent phages for eons. Here, using individual-based stochastic spatial models, we study the conditions for achieving coexistence on the edge between two habitats, one of which is a bacterial refuge with conditions hostile to phage whereas the other is phage friendly. We show how bacterial density-dependent, or quorum-sensing, mechanisms such as the formation of biofilm can produce such refuges and edges in a self-organized manner. Coexistence on these edges exhibits the following properties, all of which are observed in real phage-bacteria ecosystems but difficult to achieve together in nonspatial ecosystem models: (i) highly efficient virulent phage with relatively long lifetimes, high infection rates and large burst sizes; (ii) large, stable, and high-density populations of phage and bacteria; (iii) a fast turnover of both phage and bacteria; and (iv) stability over evolutionary timescales despite imbalances in the rates of phage vs. bacterial evolution.

Original languageEnglish
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume109
Issue number31
Pages (from-to)12828-33
Number of pages6
ISSN0027-8424
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Jul 2012

    Research areas

  • Bacteria/virology, Bacterial Physiological Phenomena, Bacteriophages/physiology, Biological Evolution, Ecosystem, Models, Biological, Quorum Sensing/physiology

ID: 226495239