Interactions between Viral Regulatory Proteins Ensure an MOI-Independent Probability of Lysogeny during Infection by Bacteriophage P1
Kailun Zhang, Kiara Pankratz, Hau Duong, Matthew Theodore, Jingwen Guan, Anxiao Jiang, Yiruo Lin, Lanying Zeng
Abstract
Phage P1 has been shown potentially to play an important role in disseminating antibiotic resistance among bacteria during lysogenization, as evidenced by the prevalence of P1 phage-like elements in animal and human pathogens. In contrast to phage λ, a cell fate decision-making paradigm, P1 lysogenization was shown to be independent of MOI. In this work, we built a simple genetic model to elucidate this MOI independency based on the gene-regulatory circuitry of P1. We also proposed that the effective communication between coinfecting phages contributes to the lysis-lysogeny decision-making of P1 and highlighted the significance of spatial organization in the process of cell fate determination in a single-cell environment. Finally, our work provides new insights into different strategies acquired by viruses to interact with their bacterial hosts in different scenarios for their optimal survival.