Cultivation-based assessment of lysogeny among soil bacteria.

Lysogeny has long been proposed as an important long-term maintenance strategy for autochthonous soil bacteriophages (phages). Whole genome sequence data indicate that prophage-derived sequences pervade prokaryotic genomes, but the connection between inferred prophage sequence and an active temperate phage is tenuous. Thus, definitive evidence of phage production from lysogenic prokaryotes will be critical in determining the presence and extent of temperate phage diversity existing as prophage within bacterial genomes and within environmental contexts such as soils.