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

Claim 9:
10. A method of maintaining a bacterial co-culture, the method comprising:
providing n bacterial strains comprising at least a first bacterial strain, a second bacterial strain, and an nth bacterial strain that are distinct from each other;
co-culturing each of the bacterial strains sequentially for one or more independent periods of time in a growth environment;
wherein n is at least 3;
wherein each of the n bacterial strains comprises a toxin system;
wherein the toxin system of the first bacterial strain produces a first toxin/first antitoxin pair and an nth antitoxin from an nth toxin/nth antitoxin pair, wherein the first toxin is effective against the nth bacterial strain;
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 toxin is effective against the first bacterial strain; and
wherein the toxin system of the first bacterial strain produces an nth toxin/nth antitoxin pair and an n−1th antitoxin from an n−1th toxin/n−1th antitoxin pair, wherein the nth toxin is effective against the n−1th bacterial strain.