Patent ID: 11896626
Assignee: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Field: Pharmaceuticals (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC A  C | IPC A  C

Claim 0:
1. A method of maintaining a bacterial co-culture, the method comprising:
culturing a first bacterial strain for a first period of time in a growth environment;
adding a second bacterial strain to the growth environment and culturing the second bacterial strain for a second period of time;
adding a third bacterial strain to the growth environment and culturing the third bacterial strain for a third period of time,
wherein each of the first, second, and third bacterial strains comprises a toxin system;
wherein the toxin system of the first bacterial strain produces a first toxin/first antitoxin pair and a third antitoxin from a third toxin/third antitoxin pair wherein the first bacterial strain does not produce the third toxin;
wherein the toxin system of the second bacterial strain produces a second toxin/second antitoxin pair and the first antitoxin from the first toxin/first antitoxin pair wherein the second bacterial strain does not produce the first toxin; and
wherein the toxin system of the third bacterial strain produces a third toxin/third antitoxin pair and the second antitoxin from the second toxin/second antitoxin pair wherein the third bacterial strain does not produce the second toxin, and
wherein each of the first, second, and third bacterial strains comprises
a lysis plasmid having a lysis gene under the control of an activatable promoter; and
an activator plasmid having an activator gene, the expression of which promotes the accumulation of a quorum-sensing molecule,

wherein both the activatable promoter of the lysis gene and the expression of the activator gene is activated by the quorum-sensing molecule.