Genetics of Temperate Bacteriophages

Abstract

For all of the bacteriophages discussed in the preceding chapters, a successful phage infection always results in the immediate production of progeny virions. However, many bacteriophages are known for which there is an alternative outcome to phage infection. Instead of the customary unrestrained DNA replication and phage assembly, there is a temperate response in which the bacteriophage sets up housekeeping within the bacterial cell and maintains a stable relationship with that cell and all its progeny for many generations. The varied ways in which the temperate response can be accomplished are the subject of this chapter. The population dynamics of temperate and lytic viruses and their hosts have been analyzed by Stewart and Levin and are not covered here. The physical properties of the temperate bacteriophages discussed in this chapter are summarized in Table 6-1.KeywordsBacteriophage LambdaPhage InfectionTemperate BacteriophageLytic InfectionTail FiberThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.