Coevolution of bacteria and phage: Are there endless cycles of bacterial defenses and phage counterdefenses?

doi:10.1016/S0022-5193(84)80035-1

Journal of Theoretical Biology

Volume 108, Issue 3, 7 June 1984, Pages 319-325

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5193(84)80035-1 Get rights and content

The assertion that the coevolution of bacteria and bacteriophage leads to an endless arms race between resistant bacterial mutants and corresponding host-range phage mutants is questioned. In general, structural constraints on the highly site-specific phage adsorption process appear more severe than physiological constraints on resource assimilation by bacteria. Several alternative hypotheses are presented that could account for the persistence of phage, despite this fundamental asymmetry in the coevolutionary potential of bacteria and phage.

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The elimination of a bacterial population by phage is not inevitable, even if phage can eliminate a targeted bacterial population given suitably chosen strains and initial conditions. Indeed, in vitro experiments (Chao et al., 1977; Dennehy, 2012; Lenski, 1984; Levin et al., 1977) and ecological models (Campbell, 1961; Levin et al., 1977; Weitz, 2015) of phage-bacteria systems predict broad regimes of coexistence among phage and bacteria populations. In many instances, co-culturing of phage and bacteria together leads to the emergence of resistant host strains and the elimination of the phage population (Dennehy, 2012; Meyer et al., 2012).
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Citation Excerpt :
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^*: NIH grant GM19848, to Bruce Levin, supported me during this work.

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Coevolution of bacteria and phage: Are there endless cycles of bacterial defenses and phage counterdefenses?*

Adv. Genet.

Am. Nat.

J. theor. Biol.

J. theor. Biol.

Evolution

Ecology

Genetics of Host-Parasite Interaction

Genetics

Mol. gen. Genet.

Science