title: Why do phage play dice?
abstract: Phage lambda is among the simplest organisms that make a developmental decision. An infected bacterium goes either into the lytic state, where the phage particles rapidly replicate and eventually lyse the cell, or into a lysogenic state, where the phage goes dormant and replicates along with the cell. Experimental observations by P. Kourilsky are consistent with a single phage infection deterministically choosing lysis and double infection resulting in a stochastic choice. We argue that the phage are playing a "game" of minimizing the chance of extinction and that the shift from determinism to stochasticity is due to a shift from a single-player to a multiplayer game. Crucial to the argument is the clonal identity of the phage.
authors.affiliation: Center for Models of Life, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mikkel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Avlund
authors.forename: Ian B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Dodd
authors.forename: Szabolcs
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Semsey
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sneppen
authors.forename: Sandeep
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Krishna
mesh_terms: D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000502:physiology*; D005716:Game Theory; D008242:Lysogeny / Q000502:physiology; D011336:Probability; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D014775:Virus Activation / Q000502:physiology