Bacteriophage can promote the emergence of physiologically sub-optimal host phenotypes

Schenk, H.; Sieber, M.

doi:10.1101/621524

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/621524

Bacteriophage can promote the emergence of physiologically sub-optimal host phenotypes

Schenk, H.·Sieber, M.

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Abstract

Reproduction of bacteria-specific viruses, or bacteriophage, requires the replication and translation machinery of the host cell. As a consequence, phage fitness depends intimately on the physiological state, i.e. growth rate, of the host. We include this dependence of critical phage traits on host growth rate in a mathematical model of a bacteria-phage interaction. This leads to a feedback loop between phage success, host population size, nutrient availability and host growth rate. We find that this feedback allows slow growing bacteria to have a competitive advantage in the presence of phage. Under certain conditions a slow growing host mutant can even drive the phage to extinction. Since in a phage-free environment slow growth is deleterious, the mutant subsequentely dies out as well, constituting a kind of altruistic scenario similar to abortive infections.

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Schenk, H., Sieber, M.. 2019-04-29. Bacteriophage can promote the emergence of physiologically sub-optimal host phenotypes. https://doi.org/10.1101/621524

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