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Understanding the Impact of Temperate Bacteriophages on Their Lysogens Through Transcriptomics
Published on: January 5, 2024
Competing Inter-Domain Quorum-Sensing Systems Control Prophage Lysis-Lysogeny Decisions
Michael L Bunsick1, Gabriel D D'Agostino1, Thu Vu Phuc Nguyen1
1Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America.
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|July 10, 2026
Summary
Bacterial phages use quorum sensing to control their life cycles. Prophages manipulate host quorum sensing, influencing bacterial competition and survival by sensing the ratio of infected to uninfected hosts.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Molecular Biology
- Bacteriology
Background:
- Phaeobacter inhibens T5 harbors three LuxI/LuxR quorum-sensing systems.
- Two of these systems are encoded by prophages within the host genome.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of prophage quorum-sensing systems in bacterial-phage interactions.
- To understand how prophages manipulate host quorum sensing and lysogeny decisions.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of quorum-sensing system interactions between host and prophages.
- Investigating the molecular mechanisms of autoinducer action on prophage promoters.
Main Results:
- Each prophage autoinducer activates its own and co-resident prophage lysogeny programs.
- Prophages use ratiometric sensing of host and prophage autoinducers to decide between lysis and lysogeny.
- A bidirectional interaction exists where prophage activates host quorum sensing, and host represses prophage quorum sensing.
Conclusions:
- Prophages employ sophisticated quorum-sensing strategies to control host behavior and outcompete rivals.
- Ratiometric sensing allows prophages to make lysis decisions based on the relative abundance of susceptible hosts.
- Phage quorum-sensing modules are prevalent and dynamic, highlighting their ecological significance.
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