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Journal of Virology, November 2009, p. 11416-11420, Vol. 83, No. 22
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.01057-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Why Do Phage Play Dice?{triangledown}

Mikkel Avlund,1 Ian B. Dodd,2 Szabolcs Semsey,3 Kim Sneppen,1 and Sandeep Krishna1*

Center for Models of Life, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark,1 Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences (Biochemistry), University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia,2 Department of Genetics, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary3

Received 23 May 2009/ Accepted 26 August 2009

Phage lambda is among the simplest organisms that make a developmental decision. An infected bacterium goes either into the lytic state, where the phage particles rapidly replicate and eventually lyse the cell, or into a lysogenic state, where the phage goes dormant and replicates along with the cell. Experimental observations by P. Kourilsky are consistent with a single phage infection deterministically choosing lysis and double infection resulting in a stochastic choice. We argue that the phage are playing a "game" of minimizing the chance of extinction and that the shift from determinism to stochasticity is due to a shift from a single-player to a multiplayer game. Crucial to the argument is the clonal identity of the phage.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Niels Bohr Institute, Blegdamsvej 17, Copenhagen, Denmark. Phone: 45 35325430. Fax: 45 35325425. E-mail: sandeep{at}nbi.dk

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 9 September 2009.

Journal of Virology, November 2009, p. 11416-11420, Vol. 83, No. 22
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.01057-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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