Bacteriophages are realized to be numerous and important components of oceanic food webs principally because of their lytic capabilities. The subtle changes that temperate phages impart to their hosts ...

Phages have been known to trade chemical messages to guide their life‑cycle decisions, but new research shows that some of those messages function more like Trojan horses than helpful signals. By ...

Viruses are thought to frequently kill their host bacteria, especially at high microbial density. A state called lysogeny, in which viruses lie dormant but don't kill their hosts, has been thought to ...

Previous studies indicate that lysogeny is preponderant when environmental conditions are challenging for the bacterial communities and when their metabolism is reduced. Furthermore, it appears that ...