Seminar by Dr. John Paul of Univ. of South Florida

Dangerous Molecular Time Bombs and Genetic Escape Pods-A Tale of Lysogeny in the Oceans

Viruses in the seas are numerous and diverse. Through their lytic activities they in part control bacterial and algal abundance, causing their own loop within the Microbial Loop, and effecting selection press that defines microbial population structure. Less well understood are the silent viral infections caused by temperate phages in the process of lysogeny. Today I will share what I know about lysogeny in the marine environment, the genomics of marine prophages, and some recent findings on horizontal gene transfer catalyzed by the defective prophages in a-proteobacteria known as Gene Transfer Agents (GTAs).