Speaker
Description
The life of phage Lambda (λ) has been extensively studied and has led to the current paradigmatic bifurcation of temperate phage life cycles along either lytic or lysogenic reproduction strategies. However, infection dynamics have long been studied using classical plating techniques that inevitably capture the more stable infection outcomes and tend to neglect the more transient phage-host interactions. Using genetics and live cell biology, we scrutinized λ infection dynamics under host scarcity conditions and observed an unexpected heterogeneity of λ-host-interactions in which episomal states tend to defy stable vertical inheritance. Both experiments and modelling reveal that these states profoundly extend the textbook life cycle of this model phage and complicate its longer-term infection dynamics.
