Chapter 30.2, Problem 3MI

Summary Introduction

To determine: The condition in which viruses might choose lysogeny rather than lysis and the effect of this on carbon flow.

Introduction: In nature, viruses are categorized on the basis of their life cycles as lysogenic and lytic viruses. Lysogenic virus uses the machinery of the host cell and incorporates its DNA fragment into the cell without degrading the cell. However, the lytic virus kills the host after producing multiple copies of viruses to spread to the next organism. The process of lysogenic conversion means that the viral genome is combined with the genome of bacteria resulting in new properties shown by the bacteria.