๐Ÿ”ฌ Prophage

A phage class="bap-term">genome as it exists during a lysogenic infection.

by Stephen T. Abedon Ph.D. (abedon.1@osu.edu)

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About this entry: Prophage is one of a growing set of phage biology and phage therapy terms defined here. For more phage terms, see Abedon, S.T. (2025). Phage Therapy Annotated Glossary. Preprints.org. 10.20944/preprints202508.0347.v1

phage.org/terms/prophage.html  ·  Abedon’s Books  ·  DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20173633

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Prophage: A phage class="bap-term">genome as it exists during a lysogenic infection.

Discussion

<p>The concept of prophage referred, historically, to an unknown, non-virion state that phages enter into upon lysogenization of a bacterium. Thus, in terms of lysis generation, the prophage was a state that comes before the "phage" state, that is, with the phage state defined for example as a virion. See also provirus.

This is the definition from Adams (1959), p. 441, "The form in which phages are perpetuated in lysogenic bacteria."

External links

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References

  • Adams (1959). Bacteriophages. Interscience Publishers, New York.

How to cite this page

Abedon, S.T. (2026). Phage Terms. https://terms.phage.org  ·  10.5281/zenodo.20173633

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Prophage — terms.phage.org — phage.org — Stephen T. Abedon — Version 2026.05.14