The balance between fitness advantages and costs drives adaptation of bacteriophage Qβ to changes in host density at different temperatures.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Host density is one of the main factors affecting the infective capacity of viruses. When host density is low, it is more difficult for the virus to find a susceptible cell, which increases its probability of being damaged by the physicochemical agents of the environment. Nevertheless, viruses can adapt to variations in host density through different strategies that depend on the particular characteristics of the life cycle of each virus. In a previous work, using the bacteriophage Qβ as an experimental model, we found that when bacterial density was lower than optimal the virus increased its capacity to penetrate into the bacteria through a mutation in the minor capsid protein (A1) that is not described to interact with the cell receptor.

Results

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SUBMITTER: Laguna-Castro M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10248866 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature