Phage-mediated lysis increases growth rate of surviving bacterial cells

Emanuele Fara; Benjamin Raach; Alessio Cavallaro; Justus Fink; Divvya Ramesh; Yongzhao Guo; Victoria Orphan; Alex R Hall; Gabriele Micali; Martin Ackermann; Olga T Schubert

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2026.115899

Phage-mediated lysis increases growth rate of surviving bacterial cells

iScience. 2026 Apr 25;29(6):115899. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.115899. eCollection 2026 Jun 19.

Authors

Emanuele Fara^{1

2

3}, Benjamin Raach^{1

2}, Alessio Cavallaro¹, Justus Fink⁴, Divvya Ramesh^{1

2}, Yongzhao Guo⁴, Victoria Orphan⁴, Alex R Hall⁵, Gabriele Micali⁶, Martin Ackermann^{1

2

7}, Olga T Schubert^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Microbiology, Eawag - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland.
² Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ PhD Program in Microbiology and Immunology, Life Science Zurich Graduate School, ETH Zurich and University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁴ Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁵ Institute of Integrative Biology, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁶ Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Italy.
⁷ Laboratory of Microbial Systems Ecology, School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.

Abstract

Bacteriophage infection and lysis are typically associated with bacterial death, yet they also release cellular components that can be reutilized by surviving cells, particularly under nutrient limitation. To quantify the short-term growth consequences of this process, we established a controlled system of two Escherichia coli lysogenic strains, one harboring a wild-type prophage and the other a temperature-inducible prophage, enabling selective lysis of a defined fraction of the population. Following induction and lysis, the resulting biomass loss was smaller than expected, consistent with rapid recycling of released material and enhanced growth of surviving cells. A phenomenological mathematical model captures these dynamics and identifies a fast, transient increase in growth rate that accounts for the observed biomass compensation. Independent single-cell microfluidic measurements confirmed this boost in growth rate. Together, this work provides quantitative insight into short-term nutrient recycling and growth dynamics following phage-mediated lysis during active bacterial growth.

Keywords: Microbiology.