∞ generated and posted on 2023.05.31 ∞
Minimally, entrance of phage genome nucleic acid into the cytoplasm of an adsorbed bacterium.
| A Phage Infection need not produce virions nor even survive to still be or have been a Phage Infection. It just needs to be initiated, and Phage Infection initiation is equivalent to viral penetration. |
Phage infections come in all sorts of varieties.
These include, not mutually exclusively, those that are virion productive, bactericidal, or bacteriolytic.
Phage infections also can be described as displaying lytic cycles, lysogenic cycles, or chronic virion release.
Note that it is phage infections that are 'lysogenic', as in lysogenic cycles, rather than phages themselves being 'lysogenic'. Phages that can display lysogenic cycles are properlyy described instead as temperate.
Note also that strictly speaking not all latent phage infections are lysogenic as some chronically releasing phages can infect latently, forming prophages, but by definition these phages do not intentionally 'generate lysis' upon prophage induction..
Phage infections furthermore can result in the death of the infecting phage, with or without corresponding death of the phage infected bacterium. (I describe with bacterial death as an abortive infection.)
With chronic virion release, the infections are virion productive while at the same time the infected bacteria mostly survive.
With latent infections, the infections are not virion productive but both the infecting phage and infected bacterium survive.
Next | Previous phage therapy-related terms: Phage Titer | Passive Treatment.
See Google Scholar for References.