Projects

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  Viral infection changes the outcome of bacterial evolution

  Core Project

  Researchers aim to understand how viruses impact bacterial evolution, focusing on viral fitness in environments where vertical transmission is enforced due to a lack of susceptible hosts.

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  Evolution of viral fitness in Mu-like temperate viruses of P. aeruginosa

  Seed Project

  This study investigates the interactions between a bacterium and its temperate virus, focusing on how viral evolution during lysogeny affects the stability of the bacterial host.

Publications

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  Suttenfield et al., 2026

  Suttenfield, L.C., Mercado, M., Jose, S., Hassan, A., & Whitaker, R.J. (2026). Provirus induction diversifies adaptive variation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa lysogen populations. bioRxiv.

   

  https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.04.697566
• 

  Suttenfield et al., 2024

  Suttenfield, L. C., Rapti, Z., Chandrashekhar, J. H., Steinlein, A. C., Vera, J. C., Kim, T., & Whitaker, R. J. (2024). Phage-mediated resolution of genetic conflict alters the evolutionary trajectory of Pseudomonas aeruginosa lysogens. mSystems, 9:e00801-24.

  https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00801-24