ArticlemSystems2020
Biofilm Structure Promotes Coexistence of Phage-Resistant and Phage-Susceptible Bacteria.
Article in mSystems, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed.
- Hawaiian geothermal fumaroles contain diverse and novel viruses.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Characterisation and In Planta Activity of Bacteriophages That Infect the Key Bacterial Species Associated With Acute Oak Decline.Microbial biotechnology · 2026Article
- Lifestyle-dependent evolution and CtrA-mediated lifestyle transitions shape phage resistance in marine Roseobacter.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Isolation and characterisation of a novel Stenotrophomonas maltophilia phage vB_SmaS_BCU-1 with evaluation of mammalian cell safety.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2026Article
- Gradient metapopulation microfluidic ecologies shape genetic and biofilm drivers of T4r phage resistance in E. coli.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Hawaiian Geothermal Fumaroles Contain Diverse and Novel Viruses.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Bacteriophages as Therapeutic Agents for Pulmonary Infections: From Biological Principles to Clinical Applications.Pharmaceutics · 2026Review
- Biofilm spatial structure and superinfection immunity modulate inter-phage competition.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Modeling the Phage Properties Best for Therapy.Viruses · 2026Article
- Phage-Based Approaches to ChronicAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Modeling the phage properties best for therapy.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Spatially structured models of viral dynamics: a scoping review.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Article
- Two unrelated Pseudomonas aeruginosa phages require the exopolysaccharide Psl for infection.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Phage provoke growth delays and SOS response induction despite CRISPR-Cas protection.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- P3MA: A Promising Mycobacteriophage InfectingAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The Ability of Bacteriophages to Reduce Biofilms Produced byAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Spatial propagation of temperate phages within and among biofilms.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Phage-phage competition and biofilms affect interactions between two virulent bacteriophages and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Ecological drivers of CRISPR immune systems.mSystems · 2024Article
- Metapopulation model of phage therapy of an acutemSystems · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Encounters among bacteria and their viral predators (bacteriophages) are among the most common ecological interactions on Earth. These encounters are likely to occur with regularity inside surface-bound communities that microbes most often occupy in natural environments. Such communities, termed biofilms, are spatially constrained: interactions become limited to near neighbors, diffusion of solutes and particulates can be reduced, and there is pronounced heterogeneity in nutrient access and physiological state. It is appreciated from prior theoretical work that phage-bacteria interactions are fundamentally different in spatially structured contexts, as opposed to well-mixed liquid culture. Spatially structured communities are predicted to promote the protection of susceptible host cells from phage exposure, and thus weaken selection for phage resistance. The details and generality of this prediction in realistic biofilm environments, however, are not known. Here, we explore phage-host interactions using experiments and simulations that are tuned to represent the essential elements of biofilm communities. Our simulations show that in biofilms, phage-resistant cells-as their relative abundance increases-can protect clusters of susceptible cells from phage exposure, promoting the coexistence of susceptible and phage-resistant bacteria under a large array of conditions. We characterize the population dynamics underlying this coexistence, and we show that coexistence is recapitulated in an experimental model of biofilm growth measured with confocal microscopy. Our results provide a clear view into the dynamics of phage resistance in biofilms with single-cell resolution of the underlying cell-virion interactions, linking the predictions of canonical theory to realistic models and
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