Thursday, March 31, 2016Noon - 1:00 pm

Institute for Universal Biology (IUB) BCXT/IUB Lecture

Phages and bacteria coexist in virtually any ecosystem, and remnants of their interactions are found in most bacterial genomes. Starting with phage-bacterial ecosystems, I will describe the use of standard predator-prey equations to quantify how phages may boost bacterial diversity, or how different bacteria may use even a single phage type to maintain this diversity. Subsequently, I will introduce a bet-hedging model aimed at quantifying the pros and cons for virulent versus temperate phage strategies. Finally I will discuss an epidemic model for phages spreading on a bacterial lawn, thereby again emphasizing the advantages of temperate phages as well as the peculiarities of the lysogenic choice of phage lambda.

Room 612/614, Carl R.Woese Institute for Genomic Biology1206 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801

Dr. Kim Sneppen Niels Bohr Institute

University of Copenhagen http://cmol.nbi.dk/

"Phages versus Bacteria: Competition, Diversity and Disasters "

Directions: http://www.igb.illinois.edu/about/directions