Arbitrium, a peptide signal used by phages to communicate among themselves and control the lysis–lysogeny transition, is shown here to also regulate phage induction (the lysogeny–lysis transition). Arbitrium signalling represses DNA-damage-dependent phage induction, enabling prophages to sense the abundance of lysogens in the population so they can time the lytic transition for when uninfected hosts are available.
- Nitzan Aframian
- Shira Omer Bendori
- Avigdor Eldar
