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Updated: Apr 3, 2026

Phage Phenomics: Physiological Approaches to Characterize Novel Viral Proteins
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Phage Phenomics: Physiological Approaches to Characterize Novel Viral Proteins

Published on: June 11, 2015

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Synergy and antagonism in a genome-scale model of metabolic hijacking by bacteriophages

Jordan C Rozum1, William Sineath1,2, Pavlo Bohutskyi1

  • 1Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA.

Science Advances
|April 1, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Bacteriophage auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) hijack host metabolism, impacting over 30% of reactions. Some AMGs optimize phage production, revealing system-level effects on host-phage interactions.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Metabolic Engineering
  • Systems Biology

Background:

  • Bacteriophage auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) modify host metabolism.
  • Previous studies inferred AMG roles from annotations, overlooking system-wide impacts and phage production.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To integrate AMGs and phage assembly into a genome-scale metabolic model.
  • To analyze system-wide impacts of AMGs on host metabolism and phage production.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a genome-scale metabolic model for *Prochloroccocus marinus* MED4 infected by P-HM2.
  • Integrated AMGs and phage assembly into the model.
  • Utilized Pareto optimization to analyze phage-aligned and anti-aligned reactions.
  • Experimentally validated predictions using *Synechococcus elongatus*.

Main Results:

  • 17 hijacked reactions affect over 30% of MED4 metabolism, including carbon fixation and photosynthesis.
  • Phage-aligned AMGs alter host-phage growth trade-offs, while phage-anti-aligned AMGs do not.
  • AMGs exhibit synergistic and antagonistic indirect impacts on host metabolism.

Conclusions:

  • AMGs cause substantial system-level perturbations in host metabolism.
  • Understanding AMG impacts is crucial for predicting phage-host dynamics and cascading effects.
  • This study provides systems-level insights into AMG functions and their metabolic consequences.

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