据介绍，噬菌体是地球上数量最多、系统发育多样的生物实体，但维持这种非凡多样性的生态机制尚不清楚。
研究人员发现在简单的实验条件下，噬菌体的多样性始终超过其细菌宿主的多样性。研究人员在一个不涉及的大肠杆菌菌株上组装并传代了数十个不同的噬菌体群落，直到噬菌体群落达到平衡。
在所有情况下，研究人员发现两种或多种噬菌体物种稳定共存，尽管它们争夺单个克隆宿主种群。噬菌体共存是通过宿主表型异质性来支持的，即采用不同生长表型的细菌细胞充当不同噬菌体物种的生态位。
总之，这一实验表明，噬菌体的丰富群落生态可以在单个细菌宿主上出现。
附：英文原文
Title: Diverse phage communities are maintained stably on a clonal bacterial host
Author: Nora C. Pyenson, Asher Leeks, Odera Nweke, Joshua E. Goldford, Jonas Schluter, Paul E. Turner, Kevin R. Foster, Alvaro Sanchez
Issue&Volume: 2024-12-13
Abstract: Bacteriophages are the most abundant and phylogenetically diverse biological entities on Earth, yet the ecological mechanisms that sustain this extraordinary diversity remain unclear. In this study, we discovered that phage diversity consistently outstripped the diversity of their bacterial hosts under simple experimental conditions. We assembled and passaged dozens of diverse phage communities on a single, nonevolving strain of Escherichia coli until the phage communities reached equilibrium. In all cases, we found that two or more phage species coexisted stably, despite competition for a single, clonal host population. Phage coexistence was supported through host phenotypic heterogeneity, whereby bacterial cells adopting different growth phenotypes served as niches for different phage species. Our experiments reveal that a rich community ecology of bacteriophages can emerge on a single bacterial host.
DOI: adk1183
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk1183