Mathematical Analysis of a Bacterial Competition in a Continuous Reactor in the Presence of a Virus

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the competition of two species for a single essential growth-limiting nutriment with viral infection that affects only the first species. Although the classical models without viral infection suggest competitive exclusion, this model exhibits the stable coexistence of both species. We reduce the fourth-dimension proposed model to a three-dimension one. Thus, the coexistence of the two competing species is demonstrated using the theory of uniform persistence applied to the three-variable reduced system. We prove that there is no coexistence of both species without the presence of the virus and the satisfaction of some assumptions on the growth rates of species. Finally, we give some numerical simulations to confirm the obtained theoretical findings.

Keywords

• chemostat
• competition
• virus
• coexistence
• local stability
• uniform persistence