title: Tradeoffs in bacteriophage life histories.
abstract: Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on the planet, yet most classical principles of evolutionary biology and ecology were not developed with viruses in mind. Here, the concept of biological tradeoffs, a fundamental tenet of life history theory, is examined in the context of bacteriophage biology. Specifically, several important parameters of phage life histories-replication, persistence, host range, and adsorption-are evaluated for tradeoffs. Available data indicate that replication rate is strongly negatively correlated with both persistence and host range, suggesting that the well-documented tradeoff in macroorganisms between offspring production and offspring quality also applies to phages. The biological tradeoffs that appear to characterize viruses' life histories have potential importance for viral evolution, ecology, and pathogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology; University of Miami; Coral Gables, FL USA ; Laboratory of Molecular Biology; Center for Cancer Research; National Cancer Institute; National Institutes of Health; Bethesda, MD USA.
authors.forename: Eric C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Keen
keywords: ECOR; adsorption; bacteriophages; biological tradeoffs; host range; life history theory; microbial ecology; replication rate; viral evolution