Universität zu Köln

Mulla, Yuval ORCID: 0000-0002-6675-0977, Müller, Janina ORCID: 0009-0007-0828-334X, Trimcev, Denny ORCID: 0009-0005-2883-2604, Bollenbach, Tobias ORCID: 0000-0003-4398-476X and Barr, Jeremy J. (2025). Extreme diversity of phage amplification rates and phage–antibiotic interactions revealed by PHORCE. PLOS Biology, 23 (4). pp. 1-25. PLoS Public Library of Science. ISSN 1545-7885

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Abstract

[Artikel-Nr.: e3003065] Growth rate plays a fundamental role in microbiology and serves as an important proxy for fitness in evolution. While high-throughput measurements of bacterial growth rates are easily performed in any microbiology laboratory, similar methods are lacking for bacteriophages. This gap hinders systematic comparisons of important phage phenotypes, such as their amplification rate in bacterial populations and their bactericidal effect, across different phages and environmental conditions. Here, we show that the amplification rate of lytic phages can be quantified by analyzing bacterial population growth and collapse dynamics under phage predation using a parsimonious mathematical model – an approach termed Phage-Host Observation for Rate estimation from Collapse Events (PHORCE). We found that the resulting phage amplification rate captures the bactericidal effect independent of initial phage and bacterial population sizes for fast-growing hosts and adsorption-limited phages. Using high-throughput PHORCE, we found that the amplification rates of Escherichia coli phages vary widely by more than three orders of magnitude. Furthermore, our approach suggests that phage–antibiotic interactions are predominantly determined by the antibiotic, and not by the phage. In particular, the ribosome-inhibiting antibiotic doxycycline generally showed antagonism with phage amplification, whereas the DNA-damaging antibiotic nitrofurantoin was synergistic. This framework provides a means to quantitatively characterize phage phenotypes and may facilitate future high-throughput phage screens for antibacterial applications.

Item Type:	Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Mulla, Yuval UNSPECIFIED https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6675-0977 UNSPECIFIED Müller, Janina UNSPECIFIED https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0828-334X UNSPECIFIED Trimcev, Denny UNSPECIFIED https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2883-2604 UNSPECIFIED Bollenbach, Tobias UNSPECIFIED https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4398-476X UNSPECIFIED Barr, Jeremy J. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-811466
Identification Number:	10.1371/journal.pbio.3003065
Journal or Publication Title:	PLOS Biology
Volume:	23
Number:	4
Page Range:	pp. 1-25
Number of Pages:	25
Date:	8 April 2025
Publisher:	PLoS Public Library of Science
ISSN:	1545-7885
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Divisions:	Center for Data and Simulation Science Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences > Department of Physics > Institut für Biologische Physik
Subjects:	Physics Life sciences
['eprint_fieldname_oa_funders' not defined]:	Publikationsfonds UzK
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/81146