Hitchhiking, collapse, and contingency in phage infections of migrating bacterial populations.

ABSTRACT: Natural bacterial populations are subjected to constant predation pressure by bacteriophages. Bacteria use a variety of molecular mechanisms to defend themselves from phage predation. However, since phages are nonmotile, perhaps the simplest defense against phage is for bacteria to move faster than phages. In particular, chemotaxis, the active migration of bacteria up attractant gradients, may help the bacteria escape slowly diffusing phages. Here we study phage infection dynamics in migrating bacterial populations driven by chemotaxis through low viscosity agar plates. We find that expanding phage-bacteria populations supports two moving fronts, an outermost bacterial front driven by nutrient uptake and chemotaxis and an inner phage front at which the bacterial population collapses due to

SUBMITTER: Ping D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7367814 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature