Monday, September 17, 2007

Bacteriophage Lysogeny


There's a great new post over at Microbiology Bytes about bacteriophage lysogeny.

Usually bacteriophages lyse their hosts following infection, however a few so-called "temperate" phage undergo lysogeny. In lysogeny, the bacteriophage integrates its genome into that of its host. The phage, then, is replicated each time the bacterial cell divides. In the lysogenic state, the bacteriophage can have considerable influence over host physiology.

Check out this page for the full details!

Photo from Viruses (Scientific American Library) by Arnold J. Levine

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