Saccharibacteria TM7x protects its host bacterium from phage and promotes phage-bacteria coexistence (PNAS)

A human oral Saccharibacteria isolate (TM7x) protected its host Schaalia odontolytica XH001 from lytic phage LC001 during surface-associated growth, with down-regulation of a cell-wall polysaccharide gene cluster that affects phage binding. Coevolution experiments showed that mixed TM7x-associated and TM7x-free populations promote bacteria-phage coexistence.