The host range of generalist and specialist phages in capsule-diverse Klebsiella hosts is driven by the evolvability of receptor-binding proteins.

Abstract excerpt

Capsule diversity is a major limiting factor for phage host range in capsulated bacterial hosts. Phage receptor-binding proteins (RBPs) recognize the capsule and initiate infection, making them key players in phage tropism. In this study, we applied an experimental evolution approach to investigate host range adaptation in a diverse 12-phage community interacting with a Klebsiella spp. community containing 39...

Topics

• Host Specificity
• Bacteriophages
• Klebsiella
• Bacterial Capsules
• Evolution, Molecular
• Mutation