ArticleFEMS microbiology ecology2025
Microbial community structure is affected by phage-resistance associated increases in host density.
Article in FEMS microbiology ecology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- A polyvalent phage shapes bacterial dynamics.Journal of virology · 2026Article
- Bacterial immune systems as causes and consequences of microbiome structure.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Bacteria-phage (co)evolution is constrained in a synthetic community across multiple bacteria-phage pairs.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Lytic bacteriophages ('phages') can limit bacterial densities and shape community structure, either directly through lysis or indirectly through costs to resistance. However, phages have also been reported to have no, and in some cases even positive, effects on host densities. Here, we investigate the mechanisms behind an increase in host density in Variovorax sp. populations following a fixation of resistance that was maintained after phage extinction. Our results demonstrate that the density increase was a genetic trait coinciding with resistance emergence. Growth curves showed that phage resistance shifted population growth curves such that density was higher in the death phase. This density-increasing effect of resistance had important implications for community structure with phage-resistant Variovorax decreasing the density of a conspecific. That resistance to lytic phage can increase host densities has implications for wider ecology and phage therapy, where lytic phages are presumed to have negative effects on their hosts.
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Registered trials
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