Emelie Nilsson et al have published in Environmental Microbiology

Emelie Nilsson, Ke Li, Matthias Hoetzinger & Karin Homfeldt. 2022. Nutrient driven transcriptional changes during phage infection in an aquatic Gammproteobacterium. Environmental Microbiologyhttps://sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1462-2920.15904

Summary: Phages modulate bacterial metabolism during infec-tion by regulating gene expression, which influencesaquatic nutrient cycling. However, the effects ofshifting nutrient regimes are less understood. Here,we analyzed transcriptomes of an ecologically rele-vant Gammaproteobacterium and its lytic phage inhigh (HNM) and low (LNM) nutrient medium. Despitedifferent infection characteristics, including reducedburst size and longer latent period in LNM, the phagehad afixed expression profile. Bacterial transcriptionwas instead different depending on nutrient regime,with HNM bacteria focusing on growth while LNMbacteria focused on motility and membrane trans-port. Additionally, phage infection had a larger effecton bacterial gene expression in LNM compared toHNM, e.g. suppressing increased iron uptake andaltering expression of phosphorus uptake genes.Overall, phage infection influenced host metabolismmore in LNM, which was more similar to natural con-ditions, emphasizing the importance of consideringnatural conditions to understand phage and hostecology.