Thermodynamics of bacteria-phage interactions T4 and Lambda bacteriophages, and E. coli can coexist in natural ecosystems due to the ratio of their Gibbs energies of biosynthesis

Abstract

The model of T4 phage, Lambda phage, and E. coli is often used in research on virus-host interactions. This paper reports for the first time the thermodynamic driving force of biosynthesis, catabolism and metabolism for the three organisms, on the M9 medium. Moreover, the influence of activities of nutrients and metabolic products is analyzed. All three organisms were found to have very similar Gibbs energies of metabolism. Moreover, since they share the same catabolism, their Gibbs energies of catabolism are identical. However, Gibbs energies of biosynthesis differ. The calculated thermodynamic properties have been used to explain the coexistence of both bacteria and phages in a dynamic equilibrium in natural ecosystems.

Brief History of Thermodynamic Research on Microorganisms

“…Chemical and thermodynamic properties of various viruses can be found in the literature [Popovic, 2022i, 2022j, 2022k, 2023e]. Moreover, phage-bacteria interactions have been characterized through the thermodynamic approach and calorimetry [Maskow et al, 2010;Guosheng et al, 2003;Tkhilaishvili et al, 2020aTkhilaishvili et al, , 2020bTkhilaishvili et al, , 2018aTkhilaishvili et al, , 2018bTkhilaishvili et al, , 2018cTkhilaishvili, 2022;Wang et al, 2020aWang et al, , 2020bSigg et al, 2022;Popovic, 2023f].…”

Ghosts of the past: Elemental composition, biosynthesis reactions and thermodynamic properties of Zeta P.2, Eta B.1.525, Theta P.3, Kappa B.1.617.1, Iota B.1.526, Lambda C.37 and Mu B.1.621 variants of SARS-CoV-2

“…[2021 , 2018 , 2009 ] and Skene [2015] . Virus-host interactions have been discussed for different viruses: Rhinovirus [Casasnovas and Springer, 1995] , arboviruses [ Gale, 2020 , 2019 ], HIV [Gale, 2020] , Ebola virus [Popovic, 2022i] , MPXV [Popovic, 2022j] , vaccinia [Popovic, 2022j] , bacteriophages [Popovic, 2023d] and viroids [Popovic, 2023e] . Thermodynamic properties for the human host tissues have been reported [ Popovic and Minceva, 2020c ; Popovic, 2023f , 2022i].…”