Vibrio parahaemolyticus quorum sensing controls phage VP882 transmission

Quorum sensing is a communication process bacteria use to orchestrate collective behaviors. Some temperate phages monitor bacterial quorum-sensing cues to track the abundance of vicinal host cells. Quorum-sensing-responsive phages can preferentially undertake lytic replication at high cell density, presumably maximizing transmission. If nearby host cells are lysogens, infections initiated by released virions could be nonproductive due to homoimmunity or superinfection exclusion, posing a conundrum for temperate phages. We define host and phage components influencing transmission of the quorum-sensing-responsive phage VP882 in Vibrio parahaemolyticus populations. Phage VP882 uses the K-antigen of serotype O3:K6 as its receptor. Host cells prevent phage attachment via quorum-sensing-controlled export of polysaccharides that shield the K-antigen from the phage at high cell density. Phage VP882 can superinfect and superlysogenize V. parahaemolyticus, overcoming the challenge of detecting whether or not potential hosts are lysogens. Following superlysogenization, recombination of phage genomes can occur possibly promoting genome diversification. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=144 SRC="FIGDIR/small/712183v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (23K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19c151dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@2e3a4forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@f64ae4org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1aee428_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG