Bacteriophage P1 does not show spatial preference when infecting Escherichia coli

To begin its infection, a bacteriophage first needs to adsorb to cells. The adsorption site on the cell surface may influence viral DNA injection, gene expression and cell-fate development. Here, we study the early steps of the infection cycle of coliphage P1, focusing on their correlation with spatial locations at the single-cell level. By fluorescently labeling P1 virions, we found that P1 shows no spatial preference on cell surface adsorption. In addition, live-cell phage DNA imaging revealed that adsorption sites do not affect the success rate for P1 in injecting its DNA into the cell. Furthermore, the lysis-lysogeny decision of P1 does not depend on the adsorption site, based on fluorescence reporters for the lytic and lysogenic pathways. These findings highlight the different infection strategies used by the two paradigmatic coliphages differ from those found in the paradigmatic phage lambda, highlighting that different infection strategies are used by phages.