title: Communication between viruses guides lysis-lysogeny decisions.
abstract: Temperate viruses can become dormant in their host cells, a process called lysogeny. In every infection, such viruses decide between the lytic and the lysogenic cycles, that is, whether to replicate and lyse their host or to lysogenize and keep the host viable. Here we show that viruses (phages) of the SPbeta group use a small-molecule communication system to coordinate lysis-lysogeny decisions. During infection of its Bacillus host cell, the phage produces a six amino-acids-long communication peptide that is released into the medium. In subsequent infections, progeny phages measure the concentration of this peptide and lysogenize if the concentration is sufficiently high. We found that different phages encode different versions of the communication peptide, demonstrating a phage-specific peptide communication code for lysogeny decisions. We term this communication system the 'arbitrium' system, and further show that it is encoded by three phage genes: aimP, which produces the peptide; aimR, the intracellular peptide receptor; and aimX, a negative regulator of lysogeny. The arbitrium system enables a descendant phage to 'communicate' with its predecessors, that is, to estimate the amount of recent previous infections and hence decide whether to employ the lytic or lysogenic cycle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Zohar
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Erez
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.|Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Israel Institute for Biological Research, Ness-Ziona, Israel.
authors.forename: Ida
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Steinberger-Levy
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shamir
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Shany
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Doron
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Avigail
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stokar-Avihail
authors.affiliation: Israel Structural Proteomics Center (ISPC), Faculty of Biochemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Yoav
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Peleg
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Melamed
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Azita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leavitt
authors.affiliation: de Botton Institute for Protein Profiling, The Nancy and Stephen Grand Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Alon
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Savidor
authors.affiliation: Israel Structural Proteomics Center (ISPC), Faculty of Biochemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Shira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Albeck
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Gil
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Amitai
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
authors.forename: Rotem
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sorek
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001407:Bacillus / Q000166:cytology / Q000821:virology; D001433:Bacteriolysis / Q000187:drug effects; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D017077:Culture Media, Conditioned / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000378:metabolism; D008242:Lysogeny / Q000187:drug effects; D008954:Models, Biological; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D017077:Culture Media, Conditioned; D004279:DNA, Viral; D010455:Peptides; D014764:Viral Proteins