Lateral transduction is inherent to the life cycle of the archetypical Salmonella phage P22

Abstract

During the transition from lysogeny (a stable association between a phage and its bacterial host) to the lytic cycle, prophage excision can be followed or preceded by DNA replication and packaging. Here, the authors show that prophage excision is delayed in Salmonella phage P22, thus allowing the packaging and transfer of large fragments of host DNA via lateral transduction.