lysogeny

lysogeny /ly·sog·e·ny/ (li-soj´e-ne) the phenomenon in which a bacterium is infected by a temperate bacteriophage, the viral DNA is integrated in the chromosome of the host cell and replicated along with the host chromosome for many generations (the lysogenic cycle), and then production of virions and lysis of host cells (the lytic cycle) begins again.

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ly·sog·e·ny (l-sj-n)

n.

The fusion of the nucleic acid of a bacteriophage with that of a host bacterium so that the potential exists for the newly integrated genetic material to be transmitted to daughter cells at each subsequent cell division.

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lysogenicity, lysogeny

1. the ability to produce lysins or cause lysis.

2. the potentiality of a bacterium to produce bacteriophage.

3. the specific integration of the phage genome (prophage) into the bacterial genome in such a way that only a few, if any, phage genes are transcribed; the integrated phage DNA behaves much as any other bacterial gene, including being passed to each daughter cell following DNA replication and cell division.