Phages have a great impact on bacterial populations. Yet, the impact of phages on post-transcription regulation in bacteria and the impact of regulation at the post-transcriptional level on phage infection is understudied. The possibility of cross-regulation between bacteria and phages at the RNA level, where RNA from one partner is regulating gene expression in the other partner, is an intriguing route for bacteria-phage communication. We study the sRNA-RNA network during phage infection and decode how bacteria- and phage-encoded regulatory RNAs participate in and control the interactions of bacteria with the phages.

Model of cross-regulation between bacteria and phages at the RNA level upon infection of E. coli with phage lambda. Light gray icons represent Hfq and dark gray icons represent ProQ.