Defiance of stable lysogeny reveals hidden infection dynamics of phage Lambda
- Author(s)
- Kevin Broux, Leonard E. Bäcker, Dries Oome, Flo Baert, Jef Vandenborre, Seppe Schoeters, Ninh Hieu Luan Tran, Kenneth Simoens, Steffen Waldherr, Kristel Bernaerts, Abram Aertsen
- Abstract
Stable prophage establishment is considered a quintessential response of temperate phages when faced with host cell depletion. Scrutinizing this behavior in model phage λ, however, revealed that many λ-chromosomes avoid stable integration in the host chromosome, and rather assume a nonintegrated prophage-like (or pλ) state inside the cell that keeps expressing CI-based immunity and becomes asymmetrically segregated. This creates a heterogeneous population of host cells that are either i) immune by stably carrying an integrated λ prophage, ii) immune by carrying a pλ-episome, or iii) λ-free and transiently immune by segregating from a pλ-carrier. Superinfection of these immune cells drains the number of λ-virions and creates more pλ-episomes that prolong the immunity and expansion of the λ-free subpopulation. The subsequent decline in λ-virions causes cytoplasmically inherited CI-levels in λ-free siblings to dilute out, poising them for renewed lytic consumption by λ. These overlooked pλ-dynamics attenuate the importance of prophage establishment and permit a more productive phage–host coexistence.
- Organisation(s)
- Functional and Evolutionary Ecology
- External organisation(s)
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Volume
- 123
- ISSN
- 0027-8424
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2600726123
- Publication date
- 06-2026
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 106022 Microbiology, 106044 Systems biology, 106013 Genetics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/17134d6c-dfeb-42aa-80de-c538669f24c0