Protection of bacteriophage-sensitive by lysogens.

SignificanceSome viruses that infect bacteria, temperate bacteriophages, can confer immunity to infection by the same virus. Here we report -immune bacteria could protect -sensitive bacteria from killing by phage in mixed culture. The protection depended on the extent to which the immune bacteria were able to adsorb the phage. Reconciling modeling with experiment led to identifying a decline in protection as bacteria stopped growing. Adsorption of was compromised by inhibition of bacterial energy metabolism, explaining the loss of protection as bacterial growth ceased.