Bacteriophages are large and diverse components of the biosphere, and many phages are
temperate. Upon infection, temperate phages can establish lysogeny in which a prophage is
typically integrated into the bacterial chromosome. Here, we describe the phenomenon of
tRNA-dependent lysogeny, a previously unrecognized behavior of some temperate phages.
tRNA-dependent lysogeny is characterized by two unusual features. First, a phage-encoded
tyrosine family integrase mediates site-specific recombination between a phage attP site …