Mycobacterial protein Lsr2 is required for productive mycobacteriophage infection

Live-cell fluorescence microscopy shows that mycobacteriophage infection of Mycobacterium smegmatis depends on the host nucleoid-associated protein Lsr2, which reorganizes away from host replication foci to set up zones of phage DNA replication. Cells lacking Lsr2 still lyse when infected but fail to produce the consecutive phage bursts that spread infection to neighbouring cells (Nature Microbiology, 2023).