CHAPTER THREE Modeling Bacteria–Phage Interactions and Its Implications for Phage Therapy Saptarshi Sinha, Rajdeep K. Grewal, Soumen Roy1 Bose Institute, Kolkata, India 1Corresponding author: e-mail address:
[email protected] Contents 1. The Bacteria–Phage Interaction 104 1.1 Discovery of Bacteriophages: A Brief History 104 1.2 Lytic and Lysogenic Cycle 106 1.3 Adsorption Rate 107 1.4 Multiplicity of Infection 109 1.5 One-Step Growth Curve 110 1.6 Phage Therapy 111 1.7 Bacteria–Phage Coevolution 113 1.8 Modeling Bacteria–Phage Interactions 113 2. Mathematical Modeling 115 2.1 Differential Equations 115 2.2 Basic Model for Bacteria–Phage Interactions 117 2.3 Resource Concentration Factor 118 2.4 Phage Resistance in Bacteria 118 2.5 Bacteria–Phage Interaction Networks 120 2.6 System of ODEs 121 2.7 Recent Developments 122 3. Computer Simulations 124 3.1 Monte Carlo Simulations 124 3.2 Probability Distribution 126 3.3 Probability of Cell Division 128 3.4 Probability of Phage Adsorption 129 3.5 Latent Period and Burst Size 130 3.6 Secondary Infection and Killing 130 4. Phage Bacteria Interaction Under Spatial Limitations 132 4.1 Formation of Plaque 132 4.2 Factors Affecting Plaque Diameter 133 4.3 Modeling of Plaque Growth as a Reaction–Diffusion System 134 # Advances in Applied Microbiology, Volume 103 2018 Elsevier Inc. 103 ISSN 0065-2164 All rights reserved. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aambs.2018.01.005 104 Saptarshi Sinha et al. 4.4 Traveling Wave Front Solutions 135 4.5 Cellular Automata Modeling 135 4.6 SIR-Type Modeling 136 Acknowledgments 137 References 138 Abstract Bacteriophages are more abundant than any other organism on our planet.