Effect of bacterial diet on bacteriophage infection
Bacteria play a huge role in the human and natural world, for richer and for poorer. Their most well-known role being a pathogen. With the gradual reduction in antimicrobial efficacy, the promise of phage as a potential solution has gathered attention.
Bacteria are also able to rapidly develop resistances to bacteriophage through numerous pathways. Here I have investigated how the bacteria-bacteriophage system dynamics depends on environmental conditions. Escherichia coli, grown in a range of media with various carbon sources, were exposed to T1 bacteriophage. In all cases the bacteria developed a resistance to the phage at long times. However, the population dynamics of the system both post and during infection varied with both carbon source and the number of phage added. Long-read and short-read sequencing of surviving mutant bacteria was undertaken. These results suggest a coupling between carbon source and the progression of a bacterial populations response. These results contribute to the understanding of the dominant factors in the growth of phage which could result in significant differences between the rates of death and resistance development in vivo and in vitro due to differing environmental conditions.
