Dormant bacteria eliminate RNA phages through cumulative ROS-mediated RNA damage.

Dormant bacteria gradually eliminate RNA phages over days through ROS-mediated RNA damage, explaining their scarcity in natural environments.

• Why it matters: Understanding why RNA phages are rare despite their abundance on Earth addresses a key gap in phage biology and microbial ecology, impacting our knowledge of viral diversity and survival strategies.
• What they did: The study used experimental approaches including ROS scavengers and enzyme overexpression to show that dormant bacteria eliminate RNA phages via weak, cumulative ROS-induced RNA damage over time.
• The result: This mechanism allows some RNA phages to survive co-infection, providing insight into their persistence and scarcity, and highlighting the importance of bacterial dormancy and ROS in phage-host interactions.