Small Things Considered

摘要

Life is full of tough choices, even for Escherichia coli. Under conditions of stress, it has to choose between trying to repair the damage or committing harakiri for the sake of the community. Why choose self-destruction? One reason would be to thwart a stowaway phage. Hannah Engelberg-Kulka and Sathish Kumar describe the ways in which one such phage-the illustrious phage λ-acts to protect its own interests.