Research interest: Bacterial cells communicate and orchestrate collective behaviors through quorum sensing (QS), a process that relies on the production, release, and group-wide detection of extracellular signaling molecules called autoinducers. QS allows individual cells to engage in and coordinate group behaviors like virulence and biofilm formation. QS can also regulate bacterial defenses against bacteriophage infection. Recently, the Bassler group identified a temperate phage encoding a QS regulator that binds host-produced autoinducers and, in response, launches the phage lytic cascade. Thus, this phage can tune lysis to coincide with high host cell density ensuring maximal phage transmission to new cells. While we have advanced the understanding of QS-dependent phage induction from its lysogenic state, we understand little about how QS affects infection of a naïve host in a natural context. Using a combination of genetics, biochemistry, and microscopy, I aim to understand how communication between this phage and its host’s multiple QS systems affects transmission of the phage in structured bacterial communities like biofilms and swarming colonies. This work will further our understanding of interkingdom communication in nature and potentially inform future applications to control virulent bacteria.