Lysogeny

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A biological process in which a bacteriophage's genetic information is incorporated into a bacterial cell's DNA, allowing the virus to persist without killing the host
2. A biological phenomenon where viral DNA integrates into a host bacterium's genome, enabling the virus to replicate in a dormant state without destroying the host cell
3. This occurs when a bacteriophage's genetic material becomes part of a bacterial cell's DNA, resulting in a symbiotic relationship where the virus survives without active replication

Etymology: Lysogeny is a modern scientific coinage, built from two Greek elements. The first, "lyso-", comes from the Greek "lysis", meaning "loosening" or "dissolution", and in biology it refers to the bursting or breaking down of a cell. The second, "-geny", comes from the Greek "-genes", meaning "producing" or "born of", and gives us words like "genesis" and "genetics". Put together, the term describes a state in which a bacterium carries a virus without being destroyed by it, the opposite of what "lysis" would normally suggest. The name is therefore a kind of joke at the expense of its own roots. The virus in question, a bacteriophage, usually kills its host by lysis, bursting the cell open to release new viruses. In lysogeny, the phage's genetic material instead slips into the bacterium's own DNA and sits quietly there, copied along with the host's genes each time the cell divides. The "lyso-" part of the name thus describes the normal fate that the process avoids.