Antagonistic coevolution between a bacterium and a bacteriophage

Antagonistic coevolution between hosts and parasites is believed to play a pivotal role in host and parasite population dynamics, the evolutionary maintenance of sex and the evolution of parasite virulence. Furthermore, antagonistic coevolution is believed to be responsible for rapid differentiation of both hosts and parasites between geographically structured populations. Yet empirical evidence for host-parasite antagonistic coevolution, and its impact on between-population genetic divergence, is limited. Here we demonstrate a long-term arms race between the infectivity of a viral parasite (bacteriophage; phage) and the resistance of its bacterial host. Coevolution was largely driven by directional selection,…

• NE
  Natural Environment Research Council