Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The latent form of a bacteriophage in which the viral genes are incorporated into the bacterial chromosomes without causing disruption of the bacterial cell.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology The latent form of a bacteriophage in which the viral genome is inserted into the host chromosome.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for French probactériophage : Greek pro-, before; see pro– + French bactériophage, bacteriophage (bacterio– + Greek -phagos, -phage).]

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Examples

  • In 1950 André Lwoff and his colleagues created the term prophage by discovering lysogenic bacteriophages inside Bacillus megaterium using ultra-violet light.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • Now then, the prophage is reproduced by bacterial enzymes.

    André Lwoff - Nobel Lecture 1972

  • The prophage is attached to the bacterial chromosome.

    André Lwoff - Nobel Lecture 1972

  • The term "prophage" was therefore proposed, and it seemed that the world eagerly awaited its coming.

    André Lwoff - Nobel Lecture 1972

  • Viral HGT is mediated by bacteriophage enzymes that insert the gene into the genome (normally for a prophage, but where it picks up genes and does it is a different story).

    Browsing the Latest Issue of Scientific American 2006

  • While working as a research associate with Bertani, I received P1 at first hand which enabled me to study phage Pl-mediated transduction of monomeric and dimeric lambda prophage genomes as well as of the fertility plasmid F.

    Werner Arber - Autobiography 1979

  • By 1967, I had published this work and had carried out a study of defective transducing particles formed after induction of int mutant prophage.

    Hamilton O. Smith - Autobiography 1979

  • In 1965, we discovered the gene controlling prophage attachment, now known as the int gene.

    Hamilton O. Smith - Autobiography 1979

  • Stimulated by Jean Weigle we soon turned our interests also to other properties of lambda, and the study of defective lambda prophage mutants became the topic of my doctoral thesis.

    Werner Arber - Autobiography 1979

  • Since these investigators had encountered defective lysogenic strains among their transductants, we felt that such strains should be included in the collection of lambda prophage mutants under study in our laboratory.

    Werner Arber - Autobiography 1979

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