Gut Virome 2D: Kill-the-Winner Phage Predation

The bacterial phyla of the gut microbiome do not just compete with each other for space and nutrients — they are also hunted by a vast, mostly-lytic population of bacteriophages, the gut virome. This 2D simulator renders five real gut phyla as colony clusters around a top-down gut-lumen ring and lets phages preferentially attack whichever phylum currently dominates, a frequency-dependent "kill-the-winner" predation rule drawn directly from viral ecology. Tune the overall predation strength, how sharply phages target the winner, and how strong a diet-driven growth advantage Firmicutes gets, then fire an antibiotic pulse and watch the community's Shannon diversity index recover — or fail to — under the current phage regime. Drag the ring to rotate your view, and follow the live share and diversity charts alongside it.