北京大学定量生物学中心

学术报告

题 目: Effects of gene transfer in phage-host coevolution

报告人: Dr. Wenping Cui

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, UC Santa Barbara

时 间: 4月6日（周四）13:00-14:00

地 点: 吕志和楼B101报告厅

主持人: 林杰 研究员

摘 要:

Bacterial hosts and phages have been in an ongoing arms race for billions of years, leading to the evolution of various antiphage defense and corresponding counter-defense systems. Recent studies have revealed the arsenal for defense and counter-defense systems is much more diverse than previously expected. Individuals can only carry a small portion of all systems due to the constrained genome size of phages and potential fitness burdens on hosts. However, both hosts and phages frequently lose and gain defense and counter-defense systems through gene transfer.

The role of the rapid turnover of these systems in host-phage coevolution is still poorly understood. We develop stochastic Lotka-Volterra models incorporating gene transfer processes to investigate this problem. The system exhibits distinct dynamical behaviors at different gene transfer rates. Our analytical result shows low gene transfer rates are sufficient to maintain genetic diversity above stochastic fluctuations, demonstrating their importance in stable coexistence of diverse phages and hosts.

报告人简介：

崔文平博士，2011年毕业于中国科学技术大学天文系获得本科学位，2014年在德国波恩大学取得硕士学位，2021年在美国波士顿学院获得物理博士学位，现于美国加州大学圣芭芭拉分校卡维里理论物理研究所担任博士后研究员，研究方向为生物物理，主要应用自旋玻璃、随机矩阵理论、以及非平衡态等统计物理方法，研究复杂生态系统及群体遗传学。