Genetic hurdles limit the arms race between Prochlorococcus and the T7-like podoviruses infecting them.

ABSTRACT: Phages and hosts coexist in nature with a high degree of population diversity. This is often explained through coevolutionary models, such as the arms race or density-dependent fluctuating selection, which differ in assumptions regarding the emergence of phage mutants that overcome host resistance. Previously, resistance in the abundant marine cyanobacterium, Prochlorococcus, was found to occur frequently. However, little is known about the ability of phages to overcome this resistance. Here we report that, in some cases, T7-like cyanophage mutants emerge to infect resistant Prochlorococcus strains. These resistance-breaking phages retained the ability to infect the wild-type host. However, fitness of the mutant phages differed on the two hosts. Furthermore, in one case, resistance-breakin

SUBMITTER: Schwartz DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5520035 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature