
A minimal model of pan-immunity maintenance by horizontal gene transfer in the ecological dynamics of bacteria and phages
Bacteria and phages have been in an ongoing arms race for billions of years. To resist phages bacteria have evolved numerous defense systems, which nevertheless are still overcome by counter-defense mechanisms of specific phages. These defense/counter-defense systems are a major element of microbial genetic diversity and have been demonstrated to propagate between strains by Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT). It has been proposed that the totality of defense systems found in microbial communities …