ArticleNature communications2024
Using bacterial population dynamics to count phages and their lysogens.
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 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Host physiology-dependent lysis timing shapes bacteriophage competition under nutrient fluctuations.mSystems · 2026Article
- Counting to two: how phages decide between lysis and lysogeny.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Single-phage profiling illuminates viral individuality during bacterial cell fate determination.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Single-phage profiling illuminates viral individuality during cell fate determination.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Large-genome phage vB_Eco_ZCEC15 targets gastrointestinal MDR E. coli: evidence from in vitro and Caco-2 cell models.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Modeling the Phage Properties Best for Therapy.Viruses · 2026Article
- Rapid resistance evolution against phage cocktails.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Broth Optical Density-Based Assessment for Phage Therapy: Turbidity Reduction, Antibacterial Virulence, and Time-Kill.Viruses · 2026Review
- The adaptive plasticity of temperate phageVirus evolution · 2026Article
- Modeling the phage properties best for therapy.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Phage-encoded small RNA hijacks host replication machinery to support the phage lytic cycle.Molecular cell · 2025Article
- Ecological ubiquity and phylogeny drive nestedness in phages-bacteria networks and shape the bacterial defensome.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Optical Density-Based Methods in Phage Biology: Titering, Lysis Timing, Host Range, and Phage-Resistance Evolution.Viruses · 2025Review
- Quantifying phage infectivity from characteristics of bacterial population dynamics.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Automated Platform for the Analysis of Multi-Plate Growth and Reporter Data.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Bacteriophage-driven microbial phenotypic heterogeneity: ecological and biogeochemical importance.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Review
- Abundance measurements reveal the balance between lysis and lysogeny in the human gut microbiome.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Traditional assays for counting bacteriophages and their lysogens are labor-intensive and perturbative to the host cells. Here, we present a high-throughput infection method in a microplate reader, where the growth dynamics of the infected culture is measured using the optical density (OD). We find that the OD at which the culture lyses scales linearly with the logarithm of the initial phage concentration, providing a way of measuring phage numbers over nine orders of magnitude and down to single-phage sensitivity. Interpreting the measured dynamics using a mathematical model allows us to infer the phage growth rate, which is a function of the phage-cell encounter rate, latent period, and burst size. Adding antibiotic selection provides the ability to measure the rate of host lysogenization. Using this method, we found that when E. coli growth slows down, the lytic growth rate of lambda phages decreases, and the propensity for lysogeny increases, demonstrating how host physiology influences the viral developmental program.
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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.