Presumably, the reconstituted phage population would remove the effect of selection during the production-emigration process.
Table 1 shows the relative effects the adsorption rate has on each stage of the settlement-production-emigration cycle.
Cumulatively, for every LA-wt phage that successfully passed through the settlement-production-emigration cycle, only 0.11 HA-J1077-1 phage was able to complete the cycle.
The advantage of low-adsorption phage in the biofilm environment is most vividly demonstrated by its competitive rise in frequency during the production-emigration transfer cycles.
The overwhelming advantage of the low-adsorption phages in the biofilm environment is demonstrated by the competitive production-emigration transfer experiments.
We constructed three isogenic strains of λ phage, each with a different adsorption rate, and determined their abilities in completing the settlement-production-emigration cycle.
For example, if after the first production-emigration experiment the phage population contains 25% of the HA-Stf phage, then 25% of HA-Stf and 75% of LA-wt phages would be withdrawn from the original phage stocks to simulate the proportion before the next production-emigration process starts.
Similarly, when compared to the HA-Stf phage, the relative frequency of the LA-wt phage increased from the initial of 10%too 74-90% (depending on the top agar gel concentration) after just one production-emigration event.
To gain further insight into the cumulative effect of adsorption rate on the entire settlement-production-emigration cycle, the above results from the three λ strains were converted into relative scales.
When compared to the HA-J1077-1 phage, the relative frequency of the LA-wt phage increased from the initial 10%to>98%8% after just a single production-emigration event.
However, we can imagine that the success of a phage in a biofilm condition would probably depend on its ability to competitively complete the aforementioned stages of settlement-production-emigration.
