Abstract
Bacteria–phage coevolution, the reciprocal evolution between bacterial hosts and the phages that infect them, is an important driver of ecological and evolutionary processes in microbial communities. There is growing evidence from both laboratory and natural populations that coevolution can maintain phenotypic and genetic diversity, increase the rate of bacterial and phage evolution and divergence, affect community structure, and shape the evolution of ecologically relevant bacterial traits. Although the study of bacteria–phage coevolution is still in its infancy, with open questions regarding the specificity of the interaction, the gene networks of coevolving partners, and the relative importance of the coevolving interaction in complex communities and environments, there have recently been major advancements in the field. In this review, we sum up our current understanding of bacteria–phage coevolution both in the laboratory and in nature, discuss recent findings on both the coevolutionary process itself and the impact of coevolution on bacterial phenotype, diversity and interactions with other species (particularly their eukaryotic hosts), and outline future directions for the field.
Highlights
Bacteria–phage interactions are central to the ecology and evolution of microbial communities
Phages have evolved a diversity of life histories and transmission strategies to exploit prokaryotic host cells for their own reproduction (Fig. 1); phages with a temperate lifestyle and filamentous phages are capable of forming long-term associations with bacterial cells, through lysogeny and pseudolysogeny, while phages with an exclusively lytic lifestyle are obligate killers of their host, requiring lysis to transmit to the host cell
We report that (1) sustained coevolution is a common albeit not a universal outcome of copropagation of bacteria and phage and can be detected in natural bacteria–phage communities; (2) the dynamics and outcomes of bacteria–phage coevolution are often contingent upon environmental conditions in predictable ways; and (3) the process of coevolution can impact bacteria and phage diversity at all levels and significantly affects bacterial phenotype
Summary
Bacteria–phage interactions are central to the ecology and evolution of microbial communities. B. Koskella & M.A. Brockhurst have led the way as model systems for understanding mechanisms of infection and genome evolution, but have lagged dramatically behind other host-parasite systems in the integration of ecology and coevolution into a working understanding of the interaction. Brockhurst have led the way as model systems for understanding mechanisms of infection and genome evolution, but have lagged dramatically behind other host-parasite systems in the integration of ecology and coevolution into a working understanding of the interaction This is unfortunate given the insights gained from other systems to the role that coevolution plays in shaping genome evolution (Hosokawa et al, 2006; Kerstes et al, 2012), driving divergence among populations (Benkman, 1999), maintaining diversity within populations (Koskella & Lively, 2009; Morran et al, 2011), and even ecosystem-level processes (Stouffer & Bascompte, 2011). As obligate killers of their host cells, whereby they must burst the cell open to release infectious virons into the environment and infect future hosts, lytic phages can usefully be considered parasites (or parasitoids) for the sake of applying predictions from theory and comparing the systems to other antagonistic interactions
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