Emerging heterogeneous compartments by viruses in single bacterial cells

Abstract

Here, the authors apply live-cell and in situ fluorescence imaging at the single-molecule level to examine lambda DNA replication in single cells, finding that individual phage DNAs sequester host factors to their own vicinity and confine their replicated DNAs into separate compartments, suggesting that phage decision-making transcripts are spatially organized in separate compartments to allow distinct subcellular decisions to develop.