| المؤلفون: |
Alseth EO; Environment and Sustainability Institute, Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK.; Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.; School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA., Custodio R; Environment and Sustainability Institute, Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK., Sundius SA; Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.; School of Math, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.; Interdisciplinary Program in Quantitative Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA., Kuske RA; Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.; School of Math, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA., Brown SP; Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.; School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA., Westra ER; Environment and Sustainability Institute, Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK. |
| مستخلص: |
Where there are bacteria, there will be bacteriophages. These viruses are known to be important players in shaping the wider microbial community in which they are embedded, with potential implications for human health. On the other hand, bacteria possess a range of distinct immune mechanisms that provide protection against bacteriophages, including the mutation or complete loss of the phage receptor, and CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity. Yet little is known about how interactions between phages and these different phage resistance mechanisms affect the wider microbial community in which they are embedded. Here, we conducted a 10-day, fully factorial evolution experiment to examine how phage impact the structure and dynamics of an artificial four-species bacterial community that includes either Pseudomonas aeruginosa wild type or an isogenic mutant unable to evolve phage resistance through CRISPR-Cas. Our results show that the microbial community structure is drastically altered by the addition of phage, with Acinetobacter baumannii becoming the dominant species and P. aeruginosa being driven nearly extinct, whereas P. aeruginosa outcompetes the other species in the absence of phage. Moreover, we find that a P. aeruginosa strain with the ability to evolve CRISPR-based resistance generally does better when in the presence of A. baumannii , but that this benefit is largely lost over time as phage is driven extinct. Combined, our data highlight how phage-targeting a dominant species allows for the competitive release of the strongest competitor whilst also contributing to community diversity maintenance and potentially preventing the reinvasion of the target species, and underline the importance of mapping community composition before therapeutically applying phage.
Competing Interests: Competing Interests E.R.W. is inventor on patent GB2303034.9. |
