bacteriophage
- Editor's Pick Research Article | Therapeutics and PreventionStable Neutralization of a Virulence Factor in Bacteria Using Temperate Phage in the Mammalian Gut
With the increasing frequency of antibiotic resistance, it is critical to explore new therapeutic strategies for treating bacterial infections. Here, we use a temperate phage, i.e., one that integrates itself into the bacterial genome, to neutralize the expression of a virulence factor by modifying bacterial function at the genetic level. We show that Shiga toxin production can be significantly reduced in vitro and in the...
- Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceTrends of Microdiversity Reveal Depth-Dependent Evolutionary Strategies of Viruses in the Mediterranean
Viruses are extremely abundant and diverse biological entities that contribute to the functioning of marine ecosystems. Despite their recognized importance, few studies have addressed trends of mutation accumulation in marine viral communities across depth gradients. By investigating these trends, we show that mutation frequencies differ among viral genes according to their molecular functions, with the highest microdiversity occurring...
- Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceLying in Wait: Modeling the Control of Bacterial Infections via Antibiotic-Induced Proviruses
Antibiotic resistance is a growing concern for management of common bacterial infections. Here, we show that antibiotics can be effective at subinhibitory levels when bacteria carry latent phage. Our findings suggest that specific treatment strategies based on the identification of latent viruses in individual bacterial strains may be an effective personalized medicine approach to antibiotic stewardship.
- Special Issue Perspective | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceThe Power of Metabolism for Predicting Microbial Community Dynamics
Quantitative understanding and prediction of microbial community dynamics are an outstanding challenge. We test the hypothesis that metabolic mechanisms provide a foundation for accurate prediction of dynamics in microbial systems. In our research, metabolic models have been able to accurately predict species interactions, evolutionary trajectories, and response to perturbation in simple synthetic consortia.
- Special Issue Perspective | Host-Microbe BiologyMissing a Phage: Unraveling Tripartite Symbioses within the Human Gut
Tripartite symbioses between bacteriophages, the epithelial cell layers of the human gut, and bacterial symbionts may play an important and unrecognized role in the function of the gut microbiome. Traditionally, phages residing within the gut were considered to interact only with their bacterial hosts and thereby to facilitate indirect interactions with the epithelial cell layers, and yet a growing body of literature is demonstrating...
- Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyGlobal Transcriptomic Analysis of the Interactions between Phage φAbp1 and Extensively Drug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii
Previous research has reported the transcriptomic phage-host interactions in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, leading to the detailed discovery of transcriptomic regulations and predictions of specific gene functions. However, a direct relationship between...
- Editor's Pick Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyFiner-Scale Phylosymbiosis: Insights from Insect Viromes
Viruses are the most abundant biological entity on the planet and interact with microbial communities with which they associate. The virome of animals is often dominated by bacterial viruses, known as bacteriophages or phages, which can (re)structure bacterial communities potentially vital to the animal host. Beta diversity relationships of animal-associated bacterial communities in laboratory and wild populations frequently parallel...