The contribution of abortive infection to preventing populations of Lactococcus lactis from succumbing to infections with bacteriophage

Copyright: © 2024 Rodríguez-Román et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited..

In the dairy industry bacteriophage (phage) contamination significantly impairs the production and quality of products like yogurt and cheese. To combat this issue, the strains of bacteria used as starter cultures possess mechanisms that make them resistant to phage infection, such as envelope resistance, or processes that render them immune to phage infection, such as restriction-modification and CRISPR-Cas. Lactococcus lactis, used to manufacture cheese and other dairy products, can also block the reproduction of infecting phages by abortive infection (Abi), a process in which phage-infected cells die before the phage replicate. We employ mathematical-computer simulation models and experiments with two Lactococcus lactis strains and two lytic phages to investigate the conditions under which Abi can limit the proliferation of phages in L. lactis populations and prevent the extinction of their populations by these viruses. According to our model, if Abi is almost perfect and there are no other populations of bacteria capable of supporting the replication of the L. lactis phages, Abi can protect bacterial populations from succumbing to infections with these viruses. This prediction is supported by the results of our experiment, which indicate that Abi can help protect L. lactis populations from extinction by lytic phage infections. However, our results also predict abortive infection is only one element of L. lactis defenses against phage infection. Mutant phages that can circumvent the Abi systems of these bacteria emerge. The survival of L. lactis populations then depends on the evolution of envelope mutants that are resistant to the evolved host-range phage.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:19

Enthalten in:

PloS one - 19(2024), 4 vom: 01., Seite e0298680

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Rodríguez-Román, Eduardo [VerfasserIn]
Manuel, Joshua A [VerfasserIn]
Goldberg, David [VerfasserIn]
Levin, Bruce R [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Bacterial Proteins
Journal Article

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 03.04.2024

Date Revised 03.04.2024

published: Electronic-eCollection

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1371/journal.pone.0298680

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM370472578