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Flip to reveal answersWhat is a temperate phage?
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All 7 Flashcards — Lysogenic cycle of a virus
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Question
What is a temperate phage?
Answer
A bacteriophage that can take **either** the **lytic** cycle (kill the host now) **or** the **lysogenic** cycle (integrate and lie dormant).
Question
What is the lysogenic cycle?
Answer
The pathway where a phage's DNA **integrates into the host chromosome** and is copied with it, **without** making new virus or killing the cell.
Question
What is a prophage?
Answer
Phage DNA that has **integrated into the host chromosome** and lies **dormant** there.
Question
How is a prophage replicated?
Answer
**Passively** — the host's own machinery copies the whole chromosome (prophage included) at every cell division, so it passes into **all daughter cells**.
Question
What is induction?
Answer
A trigger (**stress, UV light or DNA damage**) that makes the prophage **excise** from the chromosome and switch to the **lytic** cycle.
Question
Lytic vs lysogenic — the key contrast?
Answer
**Lytic** = make virus **now** and **kill** the host. **Lysogenic** = **integrate** as a prophage, no immediate harm, can **later** turn lytic.
Question
How does a prophage spread without making virus?
Answer
It is **copied passively** with the host chromosome at each division, so every **daughter cell inherits it** — vertical transmission, no virions released.
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