Evolutionary adaptation of an RNA bacteriophage to the simultaneous increase in the within-host and extracellular temperatures.

ABSTRACT: Bacteriophages are the most numerous biological entities on Earth. They are on the basis of most ecosystems, regulating the diversity and abundance of bacterial populations and contributing to the nutrient and energy cycles. Bacteriophages have two well differentiated phases in their life cycle, one extracellular, in which they behave as inert particles, and other one inside their hosts, where they replicate to give rise to a progeny. In both phases they are exposed to environmental conditions that often act as selective pressures that limit both their survival in the environment and their ability to replicate, two fitness traits that frequently cannot be optimised simultaneously. In this study we have analysed the evolutionary ability of an RNA bacteriophage, the bacteriophage Qβ, when it

SUBMITTER: Lazaro E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5967308 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature