ArticleNature communications2024
Phage predation accelerates the spread of plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 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
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Biosurfactants direct the evolutionary dynamics of surface-associated microbial systems.Science advances · 2026Article
- Spatial constraints determine the spread of plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance between bacterial colonies.mSystems · 2026Article
- Wrinkle-like structures emerge from matrix complementarity and mechanical discontinuity in heterogenous biofilms.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Lifestyle-dependent evolution and CtrA-mediated lifestyle transitions shape phage resistance in marine Roseobacter.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Alternating High-Fat and Polysaccharide Diets Modulates Gut Phage-Bacterial Interplay.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Horizontal and vertical gene transfer shape the plasmid host range in surface-associated microbial systems.iScience · 2026Article
- Influence of cell-cell distance on the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.The ISME journal · 2026Review
- Sensitivity of microbial spatial self-organization to surface friction depends on metabolic interactions.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2026Review
- Selective shifts in mobile antibiotic resistance genes under carbamazepine exposure in wastewater microbiomes.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Bacteriophage therapy beyond antibiotics: emerging innovations for infectious and non-infectious diseases.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Microbial interactions as the key to understanding and controlling environmental spread of antibiotic resistance genes.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2025Article
- Phages connect the biological dots of antimicrobial resistance: from genesis and spread to alternative treatment modules.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2025Review
- One Earth-One Health to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance Having a Dual Mutation Pattern, Based on the Robust Self-Regulation and Perpetual Reconstruction of Ecosystems.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Role of Lysogenic Phages in the Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance Genes Applied in the Food Chain.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Disentangling the feedback loops driving spatial patterning in microbial communities.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Review
- Fungal hyphae promote bacterial contact-dependent killing during surface-associated growth.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Individual-based modeling unravels spatial and social interactions in bacterial communities.The ISME journal · 2025Review
- Deciphering microbial spatial organization: insights from synthetic and engineered communities.ISME communications · 2025Review
- Evaporation controls contact-dependent bacterial killing during surface-associated growth.ISME communications · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Phage predation is generally assumed to reduce microbial proliferation while not contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance. However, this assumption does not consider the effect of phage predation on the spatial organization of different microbial populations. Here, we show that phage predation can increase the spread of plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance during surface-associated microbial growth by reshaping spatial organization. Using two strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli, we demonstrate that phage predation slows the spatial segregation of the strains during growth. This increases the number of cell-cell contacts and the extent of conjugation-mediated plasmid transfer between them. The underlying mechanism is that phage predation shifts the location of fastest growth from the biomass periphery to the interior where cells are densely packed and aligned closer to parallel with each other. This creates straighter interfaces between the strains that are less likely to merge together during growth, consequently slowing the spatial segregation of the strains and enhancing plasmid transfer between them. Our results have implications for the design and application of phage therapy and reveal a mechanism for how microbial functions that are deleterious to human and environmental health can proliferate in the absence of positive selection.
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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.