Seminar by Anjali Yadav

Self-organized coexistence of phage and a population of host colonies.

Anjali Yadav, PhD Student, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

The dynamic interplay between bacteria and bacteriophages (phages) within ecosystems presents a complex predator-prey scenario that often defises classical Lotka-Volterra models due to spatial heterogeneity and microcolony formation. Traditional models fail to predict population stability due to the intense oscillations caused by phage predation and bacterial reproduction. Our research introduces a modified model incorporating microcolony dynamics, suggesting a mechanism of stabilization through spatial refuge. We derive the probability distribution of colony sizes and study its implications for bacterial-phage coexistence, showing that larger colonies are targeted by phages, leading to their collapse and stabilizing the overall population.