Eco-evolutionary Dynamics of Bacteriophage

Organizers:

Joshua S. Weitz (University of Maryland, Department of Biology & Physics and U of Maryland Institute for Health Computing), Asher Leeks, University of British Columbia, Department of Zoology

Description:

Bacteriophage (‘phage’) are viruses that exclusively infect bacteria. Ecologically, phage infections release carbon and other nutrients back into the environment through lysing bacterial cells, thus driving biogeochemical cycles in the ‘microbial loop’. Evolutionarily, phages coevolve with their host bacteria and with other phages in complex ways, and can even establish persistent infections that benefit the bacterial host. Both ecological and evolutionary phage dynamics can shape microbiome composition, with far-reaching consequences for human health. Increasing evidence of phage impacts on environmental and health outcomes has spurred a renewal of theory and mathematical models to explore the eco-evolutionary dynamics of bacteriophage. Building on this momentum, this symposium will bring early career scientists and established investigators together in dialogue to shed light on how phage-bacteria interactions at cellular scales impact population and (co)evolutionary dynamics. In doing so, the symposium will also raise challenges for the development of theory to explore a continuum of interaction modes spanning antagonistic to mutualistic and to connect principles of near-term replication dynamics with long-term evolution.

Diversity Statement:

This panel brings together four speakers at career stages from PhD to early-mid faculty across multiple disciplines (spanning biology, mathematics, and physics) and institutional affiliations (US and Canada) in dialogue on a theme of global environmental and health importance including results spanning theory, models, and experiments, moderated by a senior investigator in the field (Prof. Weitz of the U of Maryland).