Stable coexistence and transport of lytic phage infections with migrating bacterial hosts
7 affiliations
- 1Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
- 2Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4PY, UK.
- 3Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK.
- 4Natural Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4PY, UK.
- 5Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
- 6Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
- 7University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing, North Bethesda, MD 20852, USA.
Abstract
Bacteriophages (phages), viruses that exclusively infect bacteria, coexist with their bacterial hosts across diverse environments at densities exceeding 10⁷ per milliliter in marine surface waters, 10⁸ per milliliter in soils, and 10⁹ per milliliter in the human gut. In contrast, phage lysis of bacterial populations within well-mixed in vitro environments select for the emergence of phage-resistant bacterial mutants, which, in turn, select for host-range expansion phage mutants and, typically, the collapse of phage populations altogether. This gap in outcome raises a question: What enables long-term phage-bacteria coexistence? Here, we show how interactions in space can facilitate stable coexistence and long-range transport of virulent phage along with migrating bacteria. Combining theory, simulation, and experiments across multiple phage-bacteria systems, we reveal a chemotaxis-driven mechanism that robustly stabilizes coexistence and dispersal of virulent phages with migrating hosts. These findings suggest the ecological relevance of spatial interaction mechanisms that reinforce stability between antagonistic partners in the absence of perpetual cycles of defense and counterdefense, which may be broadly applicable across phage-bacteria systems.
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BibTeX
@article{marchi2026stable,
title = {{Stable coexistence and transport of lytic phage infections with migrating bacterial hosts}},
author = {Jacopo Marchi and Chadiga Khalek and Abir George and Joshua S. Weitz and Remy Chait},
journal = {Science Advances},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aef9265},
url = {https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aef9265},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Stable coexistence and transport of lytic phage infections with migrating bacterial hosts
AU - Jacopo Marchi
AU - Chadiga Khalek
AU - Abir George
AU - Joshua S. Weitz
AU - Remy Chait
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Science Advances
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.aef9265
UR - https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aef9265
AB - Bacteriophages (phages), viruses that exclusively infect bacteria, coexist with their bacterial hosts across diverse environments at densities exceeding 10⁷ per milliliter in marine surface waters, 10⁸ per milliliter in soils, and 10⁹ per milliliter in the human gut. In contrast, phage lysis of bacterial populations within well-mixed in vitro environments select for the emergence of phage-resistant bacterial mutants, which, in turn, select for host-range expansion phage mutants and, typically, the collapse of phage populations altogether. This gap in outcome raises a question: What enables long-term phage-bacteria coexistence? Here, we show how interactions in space can facilitate stable coexistence and long-range transport of virulent phage along with migrating bacteria. Combining theory, simulation, and experiments across multiple phage-bacteria systems, we reveal a chemotaxis-driven mechanism that robustly stabilizes coexistence and dispersal of virulent phages with migrating hosts. These findings suggest the ecological relevance of spatial interaction mechanisms that reinforce stability between antagonistic partners in the absence of perpetual cycles of defense and counterdefense, which may be broadly applicable across phage-bacteria systems.
SN - 2375-2548
ER -