title: Prophage contribution to bacterial population dynamics.
abstract: Cocultures of Salmonella strains carrying or lacking specific prophages undergo swift composition changes as a result of phage-mediated killing of sensitive bacteria and lysogenic conversion of survivors. Thus, spontaneous prophage induction in a few lysogenic cells enhances the competitive fitness of the lysogen population as a whole, setting a selection regime that forces maintenance and spread of viral DNA. This is likely to account for the profusion of prophage sequences in bacterial genomes and may contribute to the evolutionary success of certain phylogenetic lineages.
authors.affiliation: Centre de Génétique Moléculaire, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Lionello
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bossi
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Fuentes
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mora
authors.forename: Nara
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Figueroa-Bossi
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D011157:Population Dynamics; D039002:Prophages; D012486:Salmonella typhimurium / Q000254:growth & development / Q000821:virology*