Bacteria-Phage Antagonistic Coevolution and the Implications for Phage Therapy

Abstract

The ubiquity of bacteria-phage interactions across biomes on earth has resulted in a diverse suite of adaptations conferring either bacterial resistance or phage infectivity. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these adaptations has important implications for the use of phages as therapeutic agents, but also offers key insights into how bacterial populations and communities are structured across time and space. In this chapter, we provide, first, an overview of coevolutionary theory relevant to bacteria-phage interactions. Next, we summarize the findings of experimental coevolution studies, focusing on the insights provided into the bacteria-phage coevolutionary processes. Although most experimental studies of bacteria-phage coevolution focus on mutational resistance and counter-resistance, we next survey the variety of resistance and counter-resistance strategies described in nature and consider their implications for bacteria-phage coevolution. We conclude by considering the implications of coevolution for developing phage therapies.