How do jumbo phages occupy niches in the environment?

Jumbo phages encode for hundreds of factors with unknown functions. The role of these factors in host-takeover remains uncharacterised, but it is likely that jumbo phages are able to occupy niches that allow them to compete with other phages. The family of Chimalliviridae jumbo phages form structures inside infected cells that resemble multiple nuclei, protecting the phage payload but also rendering the phages highly independent of their hosts. We are investigating the gameplay between the phage ΦKZ and its Pseudomonas host, shedding light on factors that co-opt the cellular gene expression machinery under non-standard growth conditions and in diverse isolates.