Fig. 4: A working model explaining the increased mispackaging of host DNA inside capsids by the podovirus and siphovirus.
From: Frequency of mispackaging of Prochlorococcus DNA by cyanophage
Higher light levels produce higher intracellular ROS levels and push the host metabolism toward faster protein translation and/or slower DNA synthesis which causes an imbalance in the production rate of capsids and cyanophage genome copies in favor of capsids—a tendency that the myovirus P-HM2 might be able to mitigate thanks to a tighter control of the host metabolism via auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) in this cyanophage’s genome. The higher number of latent empty capsids during infection would then increase the likelihood of host DNA mispackaging events.
