PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Erickson, A.K.
AU  - Jesudhasan, P.R.
AU  - Mayer, M.J.
AU  - Narbad, A.
AU  - Winter, S.E.
AU  - Pfeiffer, J.K.
TI  - Bacteria facilitate viral co-infection of mammalian cells and promote genetic recombination
AID  - 10.1101/154021
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 154021
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/22/154021.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/22/154021.full
AB  - Intestinal bacteria promote infection of several mammalian enteric viruses, but the mechanisms and consequences are unclear. We screened a panel of 41 bacterial strains as a platform to determine how different bacteria impact enteric viruses. We found that most bacterial strains bound poliovirus, a model enteric virus. Given that each bacterium bound multiple virions, we hypothesized that bacteria may deliver multiple viral genomes to a mammalian cell even when very few virions are present, such as during the first replication cycle after inter-host transmission. We found that exposure to certain bacterial strains increased viral co-infection even when the ratio of virus to host cells was low. Bacteria-mediated viral co-infection correlated with bacterial adherence to cells. Importantly, bacterial strains that induced viral co-infection facilitated viral fitness restoration through genetic recombination. Thus, bacteria-virus interactions may increase viral fitness through viral recombination at initial sites of infection, potentially limiting abortive infections.