Date of Award

1-1-2013

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Content Description

1 online resource (x, 120 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Ing-Nang Wang

Committee Members

Tom Caraco, Jim Bull, Cara Pager

Keywords

Bacteriophage therapy, Drosophila melanogaster, experimental evolution, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacteriophages

Subject Categories

Biology

Abstract

Due to the increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria, there has been renewed interest in using bacteriophage to treat bacterial infections (phage therapy). This body of work examined different aspects related to the interaction between bacteria and phage within a host using the system of Drosophila melanogaster infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is then treated with lytic bacteriophage. Using this system four specific areas were addressed: I) How in vitro phage life history traits may be predictive of in vivo therapeutic efficacy, II) How the in vivo phage/bacteria dynamics differ for two different phages throughout the course of infection, III) How modification of phage life history traits alters phage therapeutic ability and IV) The variable costs of phage resistance within P. aeruginosa.

Included in

Biology Commons

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