Phage-mediated resolution of genetic conflict alters the evolutionary trajectory of lysogens.

The opportunistic human pathogen is naturally infected by a large class of temperate, transposable, Mu-like phages. We examined the genotypic and phenotypic diversity of PA14 lysogen populations as they resolve clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat CRISPR) autoimmunity, mediated by an imperfect CRISPR match to the Mu-like DMS3 prophage. After 12 days of evolution, we measured a decrease in spontaneous induction in both exponential and stationary phase growth.