Prophage

A prophage is a bacteriophage genome. It is part of the circular bacterial DNA chromosome, or it is a plasmid outside the circular chromosome..

Formation of a prophage

This is a latent form of a phage: the viral genes are there in the bacterium but cause no disruption of the bacterial cell.

Pro means "before", so, prophage means the stage of a virus inserted into host DNA before being activated inside the host.[1]

Prophages are important agents of horizontal gene transfer.[2]

References
  1. Fortier, L.C.; Sekulovic, O. (2013). "Importance of prophages to evolution and virulence of bacterial pathogens". Virulence. 4 (5): 354–365. doi:10.4161/viru.24498. PMC 3714127. PMID 23611873.
  2. "Genomics of bacterial and archaeal viruses: dynamics within the prokaryotic virosphere". Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. 75 (4): 610–635. 2011. doi:10.1128/MMBR.00011-11. PMC 3232739. PMID 22126996. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
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