ReviewOpen biology2021
Black box of phage-bacterium interactions: exploring alternative phage infection strategies.
Review in Open biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 91 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
91 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A consensus-based guideline for personalized bacteriophage therapy.Nature medicine · 2026Guideline
- Characterization of defensome genes and mobile genetic Elements in different types of pasture soil agroecosystems from the Brazilian Amazon.International microbiology : the official journal of the Spanish Society for Microbiology · 2026Article
- Revisiting the life cycle of temperate phages.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- The role of phages in plant-associated microbial communities.Essays in biochemistry · 2026Review
- Research on Prophages in Aquaculture from the Perspective of Paradigm Borrowing: Advances in Pathogen Virulence, Antimicrobial Resistance, and Environmental Regulation.Microorganisms · 2026Review
- Phage therapy: from basic biology to clinical application.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- From hijackers to architects: the role of prophages in bacterial genome evolution.Journal of bacteriology · 2026Review
- Temperature-sensitive cytoplasmic incompatibility across divergent Wolbachia partly reflects cifB transcription, not endosymbiont density.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Bacterial immune systems.Antonie van Leeuwenhoek · 2026Review
- Genome sequence of theMicrobiology resource announcements · 2026Article
- Temperature-modulated persistent dsRNA phage infection selectively excludes superinfection and promotes generation of new viral variants.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Bacteria-phage coevolution drives variation in bacterial wilt disease incidence via resistance-virulence trade-offs.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- A new Kayvirus vB_SauM-MUHD-1 combats Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus wound infections.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2026Article
- New Finnlakevirus Isolate FLiP-2 Provides Insight Into the Ecology of ssDNA Phages in Flavobacterium Hosts.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Phage Therapy in Gastrointestinal Diseases: Current Status and Challenges.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Temperature-sensitive cytoplasmic incompatibility across divergentbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Prophage: agent provocateur?Archives of microbiology · 2026Review
- Diverse Temperate Coliphages of the Urinary Tract.Viruses · 2026Article
- Towards accurate artificial intelligence models for strain-level phage-host prediction.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2026Article
- Detecting chronically infecting viruses of haloarchaea.FEMS microbiology letters · 2026Article
31 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The canonical lytic-lysogenic binary has been challenged in recent years, as more evidence has emerged on alternative bacteriophage infection strategies. These infection modes are little studied, and yet they appear to be more abundant and ubiquitous in nature than previously recognized, and can play a significant role in the ecology and evolution of their bacterial hosts. In this review, we discuss the extent, causes and consequences of alternative phage lifestyles, and clarify conceptual and terminological confusion to facilitate research progress. We propose distinct definitions for the terms 'pseudolysogeny' and 'productive or non-productive chronic infection', and distinguish them from the carrier state life cycle, which describes a population-level phenomenon. Our review also finds that phages may change their infection modes in response to environmental conditions or the physiological state of the host cell. We outline known molecular mechanisms underlying the alternative phage-host interactions, including specific genetic pathways and their considerable biotechnological potential. Moreover, we discuss potential implications of the alternative phage lifestyles for microbial biology and ecosystem functioning, as well as applied topics such as phage therapy.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.