A temperate phage acts as a symbiotic fitness enhancer for UPEC but surrenders to combination therapy through lysogeny suppression.

Lysogenization by temperate myoviral prophage vB_EcoM_P899 from clinical UPEC enhances biofilm, motility, oxidative stress resistance, and macrophage adhesion up to 100-fold.

• Why it matters: Temperate phages can reshape bacterial evolution, but it is unclear whether lysogeny boosts UPEC fitness in vivo and how it interacts with antibiotic combination therapy.
• What they did: The authors isolated vB_EcoM_P899, characterized lysogenized phenotypes in UPEC, and tested phage plus ciprofloxacin or kanamycin versus ceftazidime in a Galleria mellonella larval infection model.
• The result: Phage-antibiotic combinations produced synergistic killing and suppressed new lysogen formation in an antibiotic-class-dependent manner, while ceftazidime did not prevent lysogeny.

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