Bacterial sensing of bacteriophages in communities: the search for the Rosetta stone

Billions of years of evolution have resulted in microbial viruses and their hosts communicating in such a way that neither of these antagonists can dominate the other definitively. Studies of the molecular mechanisms underlying this dialog, initially in bacteriophages, rapidly identified several of the ways in which bacteria resist bacteriophage infections and bacteriophages defeat bacterial defenses. From an ecological perspective, recent data have raised many questions about the dynamic interactions between bacteria and bacteriophages, the densities of which, in complex microbial populations, are only beginning to be investigated. The next challenge will be determining how the dialog between microbial viruses and their hosts modulates complex ecosystems, such as those found in healthy humans or infected patients.