Prophage state

The temperate virus does not exist in its mature, infectious state inside the cell, but rather in a latent form, called the provirus or prophage state. In considering virulent viruses we learned that the DNA of the virulent virus contains information for the synthesis of a number of enzymes and other proteins essential to virus reproduction. The prophage of the temperate virus carries similar information, but in the lysogenic cell this information remains dormant because the expression of the virus genes is blocked through the action of a specific repressor coded for by the virus. As a result of a genetic switch, the repressor is inactivated, virus reproduction occurs, the cell lyses, and virus particles are released. 

The Dormant Prophage State of A Is Maintained by a Phage-Encoded Repressor Events That Follow Infection of Escherichia coli by Bacteriophage A Can Lead to Lysis or Lysogeny The N Protein Is an Antiterminator That Results in Extension of Early Transcripts Another Antiterminator, the Q Protein, Is the Key to Late Transcription... 

The Dormant Prophage State of A Is Maintained by a Phage-Encoded Repressor... 

In a normally growing culture of lysogenic bacteria, the majority of bacteria manage to keep their prophages in a dormant state. In a very small minority of cells, however, the prophage genes express themselves. This results in the multiplieation of the virus, lysis of the cells and liberation of infectious particles into the medium. 

Lysogeny is generally a veiy stable state, but occasionally a cell will lose its prophage and these cured cells are once more susceptible to infection by that particular phage type. 

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