Should I stay or should I go? 🎵 In a new opinion piece, Claudia Igler, Andrina Bernhard and I discuss how conjugative plasmids and temperate bacteriophages balance vertical and horizontal transmission: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... Our framework sheds light on many aspects of MGE biology (1/7) - ThreadSky

jhuisman.bsky.social • 133 days ago

Should I stay or should I go? 🎵

In a new opinion piece, Claudia Igler, Andrina Bernhard and I discuss how conjugative plasmids and temperate bacteriophages balance vertical and horizontal transmission: https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/7894/

Our framework sheds light on many aspects of MGE biology (1/7)

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zaminiqbal.bsky.social•133 days ago

This is a great read!

jhuisman.bsky.social•133 days ago

To optimize fitness, phages and plasmids must maximize the total offspring from vertical and horizontal transmission. Yet, conjugation and phage lysis are costly! The resulting tradeoff causes the optimal transmission strategy to depend on the environment. (2/7)

jhuisman.bsky.social•133 days ago

We take inspiration from classic virulence-transmission tradeoff theory of parasite evolution to identify environmental factors that shift the balance between horizontal and vertical transmission: i) host availability ii) host physiology iii) competitors. (3/7)

jhuisman.bsky.social•133 days ago

These predictions correspond well to experiments investigating the regulation of horizontal transmission (eg. plasmid derepression)! We review the ways MGEs adapt their transmission to environmental cues to reveal selection from the horizontal-vertical transmission tradeoff (4/7)

jhuisman.bsky.social•133 days ago

Why compare phages and plasmids? Because similarities reveal the selection on genetic symbionts with horizontal and vertical transmission, while differences reveal how tradeoffs differ due to biology and life history. Also, these fields can learn so much from each other! (5/7)

jhuisman.bsky.social•133 days ago

Our new framework sheds light on many aspects of MGE biology, including the regulation of life-history traits, the evolution of higher horizontal transmission (crucial for e.g. antibiotic resistance epidemiology), the ecology of transmission hotspots and the transitions between MGE lifestyles. (6/7)

jhuisman.bsky.social•133 days ago

This work was previously brought to you at ISPB and KITP. We would love to continue the conversation and welcome any comments you may have on the piece. Our goal is to spark discussion and trigger new research directions! (the end)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMaE6toi4mk

bramvandijk.bsky.social•133 days ago

@sultannazir.bsky.social

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