Tel Aviv University: dormant phages weigh signals from neighbouring bacteria before attacking their host

A Tel Aviv University study led by Prof. Avigdor Eldar with Weizmann Institute partners (Nature Microbiology, December 2021) found that a dormant phage listens, via a receptor, to the arbitrium signal molecules its host produces to learn whether neighbouring bacteria also carry phages, and refrains from becoming active even when its own host shows DNA damage. The researchers call this a kind of 'phage game theory'.