Defiance of stable lysogeny reveals hidden infection dynamics of phage Lambda

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Broux, Kevin; Backer, Leonard E.; Oome, Dries; Baert, Flo; Vandenborre, Jef; Schoeters, Seppe; Tran, Ninh Hieu Luan; Simoens, Kenneth; Waldherr, Steffen; Bernaerts, Kristel; Aertsen, Abram
• 署名单位: KU Leuven; KU Leuven; University of Vienna
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2600726123
• 发表日期: 2026-06-23
• 页码: e2600726123
• 关键词: temperate phage; infection dynamics; lambda; Escherichia coli; BACTERIOPHAGE-LAMBDA; escherichia-coli; LYSOGENIZATION; induction

摘要

Stable prophage establishment is considered a quintessential response of temperate phages when faced with host cell depletion. Scrutinizing this behavior in model phage lambda, however, revealed that many lambda-chromosomes avoid stable integration in the host chromosome, and rather assume a nonintegrated prophage-like (or p lambda) 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 lambda prophage, ii) immune by carrying a p lambda-episome, or iii) lambda-free and transiently immune by segregating from a p lambda-carrier. Superinfection of these immune cells drains the number of lambda-virions and creates more p lambda-episomes that prolong the immunity and expansion of the lambda-free subpopulation. The subsequent decline in lambda-virions causes cytoplasmically inherited CI-levels in lambda-free siblings to dilute out, poising them for renewed lytic consumption by lambda. These overlooked p lambda-dynamics attenuate the importance of prophage establishment and permit a more productive phage-host coexistence.