Contribution of prophages during bacterial invasions of complex microbial communities

• Applicant: Professorin Carolin Wendling, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Medical Microbiology and Mycology, Hygiene, Molecular Infection Biology ; Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 550468176

Prophages, i.e., viruses that integrate into bacterial genomes, are omnipresent in all bacteria taxa and more than average in pathogens. This suggests an ecological advantage of prophages, which I recently confirmed in 1:1 competitions. In this study, prophages increased, depending on environmental conditions, the fitness of their carriers because they were released as weapons that killed competitors. Does this benefit persist in multi-species communities, for instance, when prophage-carrying pathogens invade microbiomes? Latest sequencing advances have now progressed to the point that enables me to take such a community-level approach. This is important because we lack empirical insights on prophage-bacteria interactions in complex communities. This project will change that. It will go beyond traditional approaches, reveal the ecological and evolutionary contribution of prophages during microbial invasions, and establish a theoretical framework that allows us to predict pathogen invasion events in complex microbial communities. In this project, I will test my main hypothesis that prophages promote invasions into microbial communities, combining in vitro and in vivo invasion experiments with genomics and mathematical modelling. First, we will conduct high-throughput in vitro invasion experiments that allow us to precisely disentangle pair-wise interactions between phages and community members and how these determine phage-mediated invasion success. Next, we will use an insect animal model system, that we recently established, to reveal whether immune system components, environmental structure, and microbiome properties change the invasion processes observed in vitro. Lastly, we will develop a well-parameterized model, based on key phage-infection parameters to simulate phage-mediated invasion dynamics across a wide range of parameters. This will allow us to generalize our findings and to develop a predictive framework. This research promises to provide a new perspective on microbial community ecology and evolution, shedding light on how prophages influence multi-species interactions and enhancing our ability to better understand and predict pathogen invasions.  

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Claudia Igler