Local adaptation of bacteriophages to their bacterial hosts in soil

Vos, Michiel; Birkett, Philip J.; Birch, Elizabeth; Griffiths, Robert I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3341-4547; Buckling, Angus. 2009 Local adaptation of bacteriophages to their bacterial hosts in soil. Science, 325 (5942). 833. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1174173

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Abstract/Summary

Microbes are incredibly abundant and diverse and are key to ecosystem functioning, yet relatively little is known about the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that shape their distributions. Bacteriophages, viral parasites that lyse their bacterial hosts, exert intense and spatially varying selection pressures on bacteria and vice versa. We measured local adaptation of bacteria and their associated phages in a centimeter-scale soil population. We first demonstrate that a large proportion of bacteria is sensitive to locally occurring phages. We then show that sympatric phages (isolated from the same 2-gram soil samples as the bacteria) are more infective than are phages from samples some distance away. This study demonstrates the importance of biotic interactions for the small-scale spatial structuring of microbial genetic diversity in soil.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1174173
Programmes:	CEH Topics & Objectives 2009 - 2012 > Biodiversity > BD Topic 2 - Ecological Processes in the Environment
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Hails
ISSN:	0036-8075
NORA Subject Terms:	Biology and Microbiology
Date made live:	12 Nov 2009 15:05 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/8300

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