TY - JOUR T1 - Why Do Phage Play Dice? JF - Journal of Virology JO - J. Virol. SP - 11416 LP - 11420 DO - 10.1128/JVI.01057-09 VL - 83 IS - 22 AU - Avlund, Mikkel AU - Dodd, Ian B. AU - Semsey, Szabolcs AU - Sneppen, Kim AU - Krishna, Sandeep Y1 - 2009/11/15 UR - http://jvi.asm.org/content/83/22/11416.abstract N2 - Phage lambda is among the simplest organisms that make a developmental decision. An infected bacterium goes either into the lytic state, where the phage particles rapidly replicate and eventually lyse the cell, or into a lysogenic state, where the phage goes dormant and replicates along with the cell. Experimental observations by P. Kourilsky are consistent with a single phage infection deterministically choosing lysis and double infection resulting in a stochastic choice. We argue that the phage are playing a “game” of minimizing the chance of extinction and that the shift from determinism to stochasticity is due to a shift from a single-player to a multiplayer game. Crucial to the argument is the clonal identity of the phage. ER -