Hedging Quote by Michael G Cordingley

““It is also reasonable to speculate that the capacity of prophages to be induced at a low frequency must in itself be advantageous to the phage genome. It is attractive to think of this as a hedging strategy, in which the genetically identical phage population can simultaneously exploit two different phenotypes - in this case, to optimize its probability of genetic success. Lysogeny can be considered as phage conservatism, a strategy suited to survival in adverse conditions, Lytic replication is high-stakes gambling that pays off with confident prediction of outcomes. A phage that never takes advantage of the rewards of the high-stakes game (except under dire and uncertain circumstances) will not be as evolutionary successful as the generally conservative phage with an occasionally successful flutter that, rewards with a burst of more rapid amplification. It seems likely then that phages have evolved to spontaneously induce, in a stochastic manner, in order to take advantage of lytic replication while not jeopardizing the genetically identical population of prophages still languishing in the chromosones of their slowly dividing hosts.””

— Michael G Cordingley