ArticleAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland)2018
Phage-Bacterial Dynamics with Spatial Structure: Self Organization around Phage Sinks Can Promote Increased Cell Densities.
Article in Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Stable coexistence and transport of lytic phage infections with migrating bacterial hosts.Science advances · 2026Article
- Phage infection fronts trigger early sporulation and viral entrapment in bacterial populations.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2026Review
- Spatially structured models of viral dynamics: a scoping review.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Article
- Metapopulation model of phage therapy of an acutemSystems · 2024Article
- The dynamics of phage predation on a microcolony.Biophysical journal · 2024Article
- Bacteriophage-mediated approaches for biofilm control.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Review
- A review and new perspective on oral bacteriophages: manifestations in the ecology of oral diseases.Journal of oral microbiology · 2024Review
- Article
- Altered human gut virome in patients undergoing antibiotics therapy for Helicobacter pylori.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of Hindering Phage Therapy: The Phage Tolerance vs. Phage Resistance of Bacterial Biofilms.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- How Good are Bacteriophages as an Alternative Therapy to Mitigate Biofilms of Nosocomial Infections.Infection and drug resistance · 2022Review
- Interactions between bacterial and phage communities in natural environments.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2022Review
- Phenotypic flux: The role of physiology in explaining the conundrum of bacterial persistence amid phage attack.Virus evolution · 2022Review
- A Review of Using Mathematical Modeling to Improve Our Understanding of Bacteriophage, Bacteria, and Eukaryotic Interactions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Review
- Bacteriophage - A Promising Alternative Measure for Bacterial Biofilm Control.Infection and drug resistance · 2021Review
- On Phage Adsorption to Bacterial Chains.Biophysical journal · 2020Article
- The Principles, Mechanisms, and Benefits of Unconventional Agents in the Treatment of Biofilm Infection.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Biofilm Structure Promotes Coexistence of Phage-Resistant and Phage-Susceptible Bacteria.mSystems · 2020Article
- Quantitative Models of Phage-Antibiotic Combination Therapy.mSystems · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Bacteria growing on surfaces appear to be profoundly more resistant to control by lytic bacteriophages than do the same cells grown in liquid. Here, we use simulation models to investigate whether spatial structure per se can account for this increased cell density in the presence of phages. A measure is derived for comparing cell densities between growth in spatially structured environments versus well mixed environments (known as mass action). Maintenance of sensitive cells requires some form of phage death; we invoke death mechanisms that are spatially fixed, as if produced by cells. Spatially structured phage death provides cells with a means of protection that can boost cell densities an order of magnitude above that attained under mass action, although the effect is sometimes in the opposite direction. Phage and bacteria self organize into separate refuges, and spatial structure operates so that the phage progeny from a single burst do not have independent fates (as they do with mass action). Phage incur a high loss when invading protected areas that have high cell densities, resulting in greater protection for the cells. By the same metric, mass action dynamics either show no sustained bacterial elevation or oscillate between states of low and high cell densities and an elevated average. The elevated cell densities observed in models with spatial structure do not approach the empirically observed increased density of cells in structured environments with phages (which can be many orders of magnitude), so the empirical phenomenon likely requires additional mechanisms than those analyzed here.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.