Center for Models of Life, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.
J Virol. 2010 Mar;84(6):3016-22. doi: 10.1128/JVI.02326-09. Epub 2010 Jan 13.
Virulent phages and their bacterial hosts represent an unusual sort of predator-prey system where each time a prey is eaten, hundreds of new predators are born. It is puzzling how, despite the apparent effectiveness of the phage predators, they manage to avoid driving their bacterial prey to extinction. Here we consider a phage-bacterial ecosystem on a two-dimensional (2-d) surface and show that homogeneous space in itself enhances coexistence. We analyze different behavioral mechanisms that can facilitate coexistence in a spatial environment. For example, we find that when the latent times of the phage are allowed to evolve, selection favors "mediocre killers," since voracious phage rapidly deplete local resources and go extinct. Our model system thus emphasizes the differences between short-term proliferation and long-term ecosystem sustainability.
烈性噬菌体及其细菌宿主代表了一种不寻常的捕食者-猎物系统，每次猎物被吃掉，就会诞生数百个新的捕食者。令人费解的是，尽管噬菌体捕食者显然很有效，但它们还是设法避免了将其细菌猎物推向灭绝。在这里，我们考虑二维（2-d）表面上的噬菌体-细菌生态系统，并表明均匀的空间本身可以增强共存。我们分析了不同的行为机制，这些机制可以促进空间环境中的共存。例如，我们发现，当噬菌体的潜伏期被允许进化时，选择有利于“平庸的杀手”，因为贪婪的噬菌体会迅速耗尽当地资源并灭绝。因此，我们的模型系统强调了短期增殖和长期生态系统可持续性之间的差异。
