Biological & Soft Matter Seminar: Phages vs bacteria warfare: co-evolution and intelligence gathering

Abstarct:

The warfare between bacteria and phages - viruses that infect bacteria - has been raging for billions of years. During this time both sides have evolved various attack and defense systems.  In this talk I will describe 3 related projects: 1. Is there an optimal number of such defense or anti-defense systems? 2. How can different phages which prey on the same bacteria co-exist, in contradiction with the expected competitive exclusion? 3. Some phages have developed the ability to garner environmental information, enabling them to make more "intelligent" decisions. How much is such intelligence worth, in terms of other resources?