Reuse, Repurpose, and Recycle: Bacteriophages and Microbial Surveillance (1921–2023)

For over a century, bacteriophages have exerted a profound influence on the evolution of microbiology, epidemiology, drug development, and clinical medicine. However, far from being stable, phages have proven to be incredibly variable entities. Variability in this context has multiple biological and social meanings. It refers to the “pluribiotic” way in which phage genomes are always changing, evolving according to their interactions with bacteria and more broadly with the ecosystems in which they participate. It also refers to the multiple forms of knowledge that have been developed to account for and a(empt to grasp the specificities of these biological entities. Finally, it refers to the diverse nature of the projects that phages are subjects of from molecular biology to evolution, ecology, human health, biocontrol, animal health, etc. This biosocial variability is reinforced by the different scales through which phages can be thought of and the infrastructures via which they are mobilised: in laboratories working on coevolution or interaction mechanisms, in collections of microorganisms that may or may not be shared between research teams, in ecosystems whose scales are themselves variable, from the microbiota of a mouse to the major biogeochemical cycles, in clinical trials, in uses in the agri-food industry, in the multiple regulations on which they depend, or in the recommendations and reports issued by international agencies.