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Title : Ecology and evolution of phage-Ralstonia solanacearum interactions in microbiomes

Thursday, November 23 at 11 a.m., in Salle Lynn Margulis - PABS, INRAE Occitanie-Toulouse and on Zoom

Abstract : Bacterial viruses - phages - shape the structure of natural bacterial communities via the direct killing of cells and by imposing selection for the evolution of phage resistance.
While phages are abundant in environmental microbiomes, their effects on plant pathogenic Ralstonia solanacearum bacterium, rhizosphere bacterial communities and associated plants are poorly understood. In this talk, I will present our current work conducted in both UK and China. We find that Ralstonia-phages are common in aquatic and soil environments and can be isolated from agricultural and non-crop reservoir plant hosts. While phage resistance is common, it varies in both space and time. Phages can be used to control R. solanacearum infections in planta, and while phage resistance evolves rapidly it is often costly, leading to trade-offs with pathogen virulence and competitiveness. Together, our findings suggest that R. solanacearum commonly interacts with phages in natural microbiomes, which could affect pathogen distribution, evolution, and responses to phage biocontrol applications.

Zoom Link

https://inrae-fr.zoom.us/j/94872128020?pwd=TzM5Sitac1NSd1pWR0w3d3JjNFFkQT09 
ID meeting : 948 7212 8020 
Code secret : labexVF23! 

Related publications :

Wang, J., Wang, X., Yang, K., Lu, C., Fields, B., Xu, Y., Shen, Q., Wei, Z., and Friman, V-P. (2023). Phage selection drives resistance-virulence trade-offs in Ralstonia solanacearum plant pathogenic bacterium irrespective of the growth temperature. Evolution Letters (accepted).

Yang, K., Wang, X., Hou, R., Lu, C., Fan, Z., Li, J., Wang, S., Xu, Y, Shen, Q., Friman, V-P., Wei, Z. (2023). Rhizosphere phage communities drive soil suppressiveness to bacterial wilt disease. Microbiome 11(1): 1-18

Fields, B. and Friman, V-P. (2022). Microbial eco-evolutionary dynamics in the plant rhizosphere. Current Opinion in Microbiology 68: 102153.

Greenrod, S.T.E., Stoycheva, M., Elphinstone, J.G., and Friman, V-P. (2022). Global diversity and distribution of prophages are lineage-specific with the Ralstonia solanacearum plant pathogenic bacterium species complex. BMC Genomics 23(1): 689.

Grace, E.R., Rabiey, M., Friman, V-P and Jackson, R.W. (2021). Seeing the forest for the trees: Use of phages to treat bacterial tree diseases. Plant Pathology 70: 1987-2004.

Wang, X., Wei, Z., Yang, K., Wang, J., Jousset, A., Xu, Y., Shen, Q. & Friman, V-P (2019). Phage combination therapies for bacterial wilt disease in tomato. Nature Biotechnology 37: 1513-1520.

Wang, X., Wei, Z.,  Li, M., Wang, X., Shan, A., Mei, X., Jousset, A., Shen, Q., Xu, Y. and Friman, V-P. (2016). Parasites and competitors suppress bacterial pathogen synergistically due to evolutionary trade-offs. Evolution 71: 733-746.

Contact

Ville Friman : ville.friman@york.ac.uk
Stéphane Genin : stephane.genin@inrae.fr