Prophage contribution to bacterial population dynamics.
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.
Bossi
Lionello
L
Centre de Génétique Moléculaire, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Fuentes
Juan A
JA
Mora
Guido
G
Figueroa-Bossi
Nara
N
D005075:Biological Evolution; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D011157:Population Dynamics; D039002:Prophages; D012486:Salmonella typhimurium / Q000254:growth & development / Q000821:virology*