#NewResearch The long-term existence of diverse virulent phages within cultures of Escherichia coli and others challenges the virulent–temperate dichotomy and points to non-canonical phage lifestyles. #MicroSky 🦠 @peterdoug.bsky.social @emggroupucph.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bacteriophages are normally classified as either virulent or temperate. Reality is, of course, more complicated! Here we show many bacterial isolates contain non-temperate phages that can persist through restreaking. Thanks to all co-authors for such a great collaboration!

Are there virulent phages hiding in your bacterial culture? Here we find hundreds of virulent phage genomes in bacterial genome assemblies. Bioinformatic and experimental evidence indicate these are not contaminations, but represent persistent infections. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...