Lysogeny in phiCbK-like viruses. Genomic analysis of phiCbK-like phages: implications for viral lysogenenic lifestyles and phage-bacterium symbiotic interactions

Caulobacter phage phiCbK has long been a model virus extensively studied in cell and phage biology. Here, we identified four phiCbK-like prophages from diverse alphaproteobacterial Hyphomicrobiales genomes. Three of them show lysogenic lifestyles with an integrated genome flanked by host chromosome, and the other one establishes a pseudolysogenic state wherein the phage genome remains a non-integrated circular form as an episome.