Temperate phages as self-replicating weapons in bacterial competition
- Li, Xiang-Yi ORCID Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
- Lachnit, Tim Zoological Institute, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany
- Fraune, Sebastian Zoological Institute, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany
- Bosch, Thomas C. G. Zoological Institute, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Kiel, Germany
- Traulsen, Arne Department of Evolutionary Theory, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany
- Sieber, Michael ORCID Department of Evolutionary Theory, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany
- 2017-12-20
Published in:
- Journal of The Royal Society Interface. - The Royal Society. - 2017, vol. 14, no. 137, p. 20170563
English
Microbial communities are accompanied by a diverse array of viruses. Through infections of abundant microbes, these viruses have the potential to mediate competition within the community, effectively weakening competitive interactions and promoting coexistence. This is of particular relevance for host-associated microbial communities, because the diversity of the microbiota has been linked to host health and functioning. Here, we study the interaction between two key members of the microbiota of the freshwater metazoan
Hydra vulgaris
. The two commensal bacteria
Curvibacter
sp. and
Duganella
sp. protect their host from fungal infections, but only if both of them are present. Coexistence of the two bacteria is thus beneficial for
Hydra
. Intriguingly,
Duganella
sp. appears to be the superior competitor
in vitro
due to its higher growth rate when both bacteria are grown separately, but in co-culture the outcome of competition depends on the relative initial abundances of the two species. The presence of an inducible prophage in the
Curvibacter
sp. genome, which is able to lytically infect
Duganella
sp., led us to hypothesize that the phage modulates the interaction between these two key members of the
Hydra
microbiota. Using a mathematical model, we show that the interplay of the lysogenic life cycle of the
Curvibacter
phage and the lytic life cycle on
Duganella
sp. can explain the observed complex competitive interaction between the two bacteria. Our results highlight the importance of taking lysogeny into account for understanding microbe–virus interactions and show the complex role phages can play in promoting coexistence of their bacterial hosts.
Microbial communities are accompanied by a diverse array of viruses. Through infections of abundant microbes, these viruses have the potential to mediate competition within the community, effectively weakening competitive interactions and promoting coexistence. This is of particular relevance for host-associated microbial communities, because the diversity of the microbiota has been linked to host health and functioning. Here, we study the interaction between two key members of the microbiota of the freshwater metazoan
. The two commensal bacteria
sp. and
sp. protect their host from fungal infections, but only if both of them are present. Coexistence of the two bacteria is thus beneficial for
. Intriguingly,
sp. appears to be the superior competitor
due to its higher growth rate when both bacteria are grown separately, but in co-culture the outcome of competition depends on the relative initial abundances of the two species. The presence of an inducible prophage in the
sp. genome, which is able to lytically infect
sp., led us to hypothesize that the phage modulates the interaction between these two key members of the
microbiota. Using a mathematical model, we show that the interplay of the lysogenic life cycle of the
phage and the lytic life cycle on
sp. can explain the observed complex competitive interaction between the two bacteria. Our results highlight the importance of taking lysogeny into account for understanding microbe–virus interactions and show the complex role phages can play in promoting coexistence of their bacterial hosts.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- bronze
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1098/rsif.2017.0563
- ISSN 1742-5689
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/133070
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