ERC Starting Grant · 2023
Phage co-infection: a missing link in deciphering phage co-evolutionary dynamics
Phage genomes represent an impressive mosaicism with different genomic regions having distinct evolutionary histories resulting from horizontal gene transfer. By initiating an estimated 10^25 bacterial infections globally every second, phages encounter and recombine with DNA of the host or of prophage origin, further adding to their genome mosaicism. Accumulating evidence, including from my work, suggest that the simultaneous infection of bacterial host by multiple phages (co-infection) could also be an important driver of phage genome evolution. However, methodological limitations have so far prevented rigorous testing of this hypothesis due to failure of studying phage co-infection in…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.