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What Does Communication of Phages Mean?

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Biocommunication of Phages

Abstract

Phages have serious effects on global energy and nutrient cycles. Phages actively compete for host. They can distinguish between ‘self’ and ‘non-self’ (complement same, preclude others). They process and evaluate available information and then modify their behaviour accordingly. These diverse competences show us that this capacity to evaluate information is possible owing to communication processes within phages (intra-organismic), between the same, related and different phage species (interorganismic), and between phages and non-phage organisms (transorganismic). This is crucial in coordinating infection strategies (lytic vs. lysogenic) and recombination in phage genomes. Therefore it is essential to investigate what communication of phages means and to identify the difference of the biocommunication approach to investigations that are restricted to the molecular biological perspective.

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Acknowledgement

I want to thank Luis P. Villarreal for helpfull comments.

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    Guenther Witzany

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    Guenther Witzany

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Witzany, G. (2020). What Does Communication of Phages Mean?. In: Witzany, G. (eds) Biocommunication of Phages. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45885-0_1

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