Bacteriophages benefit from generalized transduction
Fig 6
Gene-shuffling between genetically different strains lysogenized by the same phage.
(A) The experiment includes two lysogens carrying the same generalized transducing temperate phage, but with different antibiotic resistance genes in their chromosome (lysogen A resistant to erythromycin, lysogen B resistant to choloramphenicol). (B) Population dynamics of bacteria and phage when bacterial strains are subjected to a cocktail of two antibiotics (ERM+CAM) at iteration 10. Bacteria resistant to one antibiotic only are shown in faded symbols (crosses or circles, first column), with full colored symbols indicating bacteria resistant to both antibiotics (third column). Phages particles are shown in orange (second column), with full lines for active particles and dashed lines for transducing particles. Lines correspond to the median of 100 different simulations with similar parameters, and the shaded areas correspond to a confidence interval of 95%. (C) Two strains of 8325–4 (AA001) and USA300 (AA002) background, respectively, harboring different plasmids with unique antibiotic resistance markers were mixed 1:1 to OD600 = 0.01. After incubation over-night, number of cells from the two different strain backgrounds carrying one or both plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance markers were determined.