Large variabilities in host strain susceptibility and phage host range govern interactions between lytic marine phages and their Flavobacterium hosts.

ABSTRACT: Phages are a main mortality factor for marine bacterioplankton and are thought to regulate bacterial community composition through host-specific infection and lysis. In the present study we demonstrate for a marine phage-host assemblage that interactions are complex and that specificity and efficiency of infection and lysis are highly variable among phages infectious to strains of the same bacterial species. Twenty-three Bacteroidetes strains and 46 phages from Swedish and Danish coastal waters were analyzed. Based on genotypic and phenotypic analyses, 21 of the isolates could be considered strains of Cellulophaga baltica (Flavobacteriaceae). Nevertheless, all bacterial strains showed unique phage susceptibility patterns and differed by up to 6 orders of magnitude in sensitivity to the sam

SUBMITTER: Holmfeldt K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2074958 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature