Fig. 1.

The phage life cycle. Lytic phages proceed through the lytic cycle, in which the host is lysed and progeny phages are released into the environment. Temperate phages can go through the lytic or the lysogenic cycle. In the lysogenic cycle, the phage genome is incorporated into the host genome (prophage) but can be induced by environmental stressors, leading to the expression of phage DNA and the lytic cycle. Adapted from Doss et al.¹⁶