Lysis or lysogen: the fate decision when bacteria encounter phages

Abstract:

Phage, the most abundant organisms on the earth, play a vital role in the shaping of natural ecosystems and the driving of bacterial evolution. In the struggle with the host, phage can choose the following two ways to determine fate of itself and the host:(1) Lysis:lysing the host cell, and finally releasing a large amount of phage particles; (2) Lysogen:integrating its chromosome into the host cell, then establishing a potential coexistence relationship with the host. For some temperate phages, this tendency is further regulated by the diversity of infections, where single infections are mainly lytic, while multiple infections are mostly lysogenic. Lysogenic phage can not only activate the lysis-lysogen switch based on the physical and chemical factors of the external environment, but also use the bacteria's own quorum sensing system to initiate the lysis-lysogen switch, and then determine the fate of its host bacteria. Meanwhile, the host bacteria have evolved means to target phage during the long-term struggle. In general, phage profoundly affects bacterial community dynamics, genome evolution, and ecosystems, etc., and all of this depends on the mode of struggle between phages and host (lysis/lysogenic infection). This paper discusses the influencing factors that cause temperate phage to lyse the host bacteria-lysogenic fate, and systematically summarizes the latest research on coping strategies of bacteria facing phage infection, hoping to provide help and suggestions for the follow-up study on the interaction between phage and host.