Phage-Encoded Sigma Factors Alter Bacterial Dormancy.

ABSTRACT: By entering a reversible state of reduced metabolic activity, dormant microorganisms are able to tolerate suboptimal conditions that would otherwise reduce their fitness. Dormancy may also benefit bacteria by serving as a refuge from parasitic infections. Here, we focus on dormancy in the Bacillota, where endospore development is transcriptionally regulated by the expression of sigma factors. A disruption of this process could influence the survivorship or reproduction of phages that infect spore-forming hosts with implications for coevolutionary dynamics. We characterized the distribution of sigma factors in over 4,000 genomes of diverse phages capable of infecting hosts that span the bacterial domain. From this, we identified homologs of sporulation-specific sigma factors in phage

SUBMITTER: Schwartz DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9429907 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature