Embracing complexity in experimental evolution of bacteria - Phage communities

Bacteria exist in hugely diverse communities and engage in interactions not just with other species - but also with a menagerie of genetic elements, like plasmids and phages, which infect, kill, benefit and manipulate their bacterial hosts. Interactions between these elements and their bacterial hosts play an important part in shaping the ecology of microbial communities and driving bacterial evolution. A key tool for understanding these interactions has been the use of experimental evolution; understanding evolutionary dynamics in simplified, highly controlled communities but limitations on what we can learn from 'abstract' experimental systems is driving a shift to expand this approach into complex, (more) natural microbial communities. I will present my work showing how genetic elements can alter the outcome of bacterial evolution in the lab, as well as introduce novel work to understand bacterial - genetic element interactions in the wild.