O-antigen biosynthesis mediates evolutionary trade-offs within a simple community

Diverse populations of bacteriophages infect and co-evolve with their bacterial hosts. Although host recognition and infection occurs within microbiomes, the molecular mechanisms underlying host-phage interactions within a community context remain poorly studied. The biofilms (rinds) of aged cheeses contain taxonomically diverse microbial communities that follow reproducible growth patterns and can be manipulated under laboratory conditions. In this study, we use cheese as a model for studying phage-microbe interactions by identifying and characterising a tractable host-phage pair co-occurring within a model Brie community. We isolated novel bacteriophage TS33 that kills Hafnia sp. JB232 (hereafter Hafnia), a member of the model community. TS33 is easily propagated in the lab and naturally co-occurs in the cheese with the Brie community, rendering it a prime candidate for the study of host-phage interactions. We performed growth assays of the Hafnia, TS33 and the fungal community members, Geotrichum candidum and Penicillium camemberti. Employing Random Barcode Transposon Sequencing (RB-TnSeq) experiments, we identified candidate host factors that contribute to TS33 infectivity, many of which are critical to the integrity of bacterial O-antigen. Notably, disruption of these genes results in decreased susceptibility to infection by phage TS33, while simultaneously exhibiting a significant negative effect on the fitness of Hafnia in the presence of the fungi. Therefore, O-antigen mutations may have pleiotropic effects on the interactions between Hafnia and the rest of the Brie community. Ongoing and future studies aim to unearth the molecular mechanisms by which the O-antigen of Hafnia mediates its interactions with its viral and fungal partners.