Bacteriophages as sources of small non-coding RNA molecules

Bacteriophages play an essential role in the transferring of genes that contribute to the bacterial virulence and whose products are dangerous to human health. Interestingly, phages carrying virulence genes are mostly temperate and in contrast to lytic phages undergo both lysogenic and lytic cycles. Importantly, expression of the majority of phage genes and subsequent production of phage encoded proteins is suppressed during lysogeny. The expression of the majority of phage genes is tightly linked to lytic development. Among others, small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) of phage origin are involved in the regulation of phage gene expression and thus play an important role in both phage and host development. In the case of bacteria, sRNAs affect processes such as virulence, colonization ability, motility and cell growth or death. In turn, in the case of phages, they play essential roles during the early stage of infection, maintaining the state of lysogeny and silencing the expression of late structural genes, thereby regulating the transition between phage life cycles. Interestingly, sRNAs have been identified in both lytic and temperate phages and they have been discussed in this work according to this classification. Particular attention was paid to viral sRNAs resembling eukaryotic microRNAs.