Talk:Lysogenic cycle

Requested move
I'm suggesting to move this page to lysogenic cycle for consistency with lytic cycle. It seems that lytic/lysogenic pathway/cycle are the preferred terms in intro bio textbooks. - tameeria 20:28, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

I am just going to suggest for some people who may be taking a lower level microbiology course that the term lysogeny also be referred to as temperate. As they mean the exact same thing and so noone who only knows temperate get confussed and not learn anything about their topic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.254.219.135 (talk) 02:49, 10 May 2007

This article has been renamed as the result of a move request. --Stemonitis 09:33, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Would somebody mind creating a redirect from lysogenic viruses to here? There's already such a redirect in the case of lytic viruses. 81.110.222.125 (talk) 08:13, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Done. Cheers, mgiganteus1 (talk) 12:29, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Thoughts on changes/additions
1. Citation necessary for lysogenic conversion and for the background of the lysogenic cycle. 2. Better illustration of the lysogenic cycle that includes brief descriptions of each stage/step. 3. Discussion of cryptic viruses. 4. Brief description of control of the lysogenic cycle to know what to expect when doing further reading on bacteriophage lambda. 5. Virulence factors. 6. Current and future research. Bmesido1 (talk) 02:21, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the  link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). Graham Colm (talk) 17:44, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Comments from Vdiaz3
Overall it's a good start.

Perhaps including some form of a general outline of the process  or stages in the lysogenic cycle would aid in helping the reader grasp the concept more easily(example: 1. the virus latches on or attaches to bacteria, 2. injects it's genetic material, 3. the virus genetic material is incorporated into, etc.)

I would suggest replacing the current image with one that is a bit more descriptive of the lysogenic cycle. This will aid in making a clear distinction between the two cycles.

The introduction mentions a distinction between the lysogenic and lytic cycles which can be expanded upon with several other marked differences between the two.

More relevant references should be added/included along with the additional information that is supplied. Right now the sources are few. With regards to the information that is already on there, you should double check because there appears to be information that is not sourced nor referenced, particularly in the first and second paragraphs. There are no citations there at all.

A brief summary on lysogenic cycle regulation, or at least what the latest findings suggest, may be another informative area. For example. the article " Linking the lytic and lysogenic bacteriophage cycles to environmental conditions, host physiology, and their variability in coastal lagoons" from Environmental Microbiology offers recent findings which suggest that the lysogenic cycle in aquatic systems seems to be dependent on variability of prokaryote physiology for regulation (as opposed to the lytic cycle which appears to be influenced more by environmental parameters and host physiology) (Maurice et al 2013; DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.12120).

I'm sure that some of these are things you both already have in mind to do since this is only the first draft. As I mentioned before though, it's a good start! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vdiaz3 (talk • contribs) 17:56, 11 April 2013 (UTC)


 * The article has not been edited since the December 15. Who are the "both" you refer to? Graham Colm (talk) 19:38, 11 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Thank you Vdiaz3! I have included several details on the lysogenic cycle process. I have also included a small part on the difference between the lytic and lysogenic cycles. With these changes are also additional references and in-text citations. I am still looking into the image. There are several good choices on Google Images but I will have to make sure there are no copyright issues. Thanks again. Bmesido1 (talk) 02:16, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Comments from Nguych01
The lead section provides a concise overview of the lysogenic cycle without going into too much detail. This includes a brief description and comparison of the lytic cycle to the lysogenic cycle. I think that this comparison aids greatly in the understanding of the article topic and agree that possibly including more of the distinctions between the two cycles will enhance the article’s helpfulness to the reader.

Content within the article needs to be properly cited as the first two paragraphs lack references or at least in-text citations (as mentioned). However, sources included in the references section seem to be reputable and a good start for this article. The cited paragraph on lysogenic conversion is a good representation of its source with information used in an appropriate manner.

With regards to specific content, I would suggest including more about lambda phage because there is a great wealth of information about this model organism which would help in understanding the lysogenic cycle. These details could include, for example, the kinds of conditions that promote lysogeny (i.e. poor bacterial growth) and a brief mention of multiplicity of infection (i.e. >2 phage particles per cell favoring lysogeny). Including this sort of information would help the reader understand why a lysogenic state would be favored over a lytic one. In addition, a concise overview of notable genes and gene products (i.e. cI and lambda repressor) that play an important role in lysogeny can also be included, the specific mechanistic details of which are described on other article pages.

Also, there is mention of strategies to fight bacterial infections by blocking prophage induction. The article, Paradigms of pathogenesis: Targeting the mobile genetic elements of disease, describes some of these theoretical anti-induction strategies (Keen et al. doi:10.3389/fcimb.2012.00161). I would suggest including a brief description of each of these approaches because these strategies often reflect fundamental prophage biology. For example, Czyz et al. showed that an overexpression of CI repressor correlates with a significant reduction in prophage induction in E. coli which reflects the importance of the CI repressor in maintaining lysogeny (BMC Biotechnol. 1:1. doi: 10.1186/1472-6750-1–1).

Overall, the article is a great start with the main concern being adding more reference, in-text citations, and expanding upon the information already present in the article. Nguych01 (talk) 20:06, 11 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Hi Nguych01! Thank you for your comments. I have tried to distinguish the lytic and lysogenic cycles and add references and in-text citations. I had difficulty with how much information re: lamda phage should be in this particular article as lambda phage has its own article that is very detailed. Perhaps I will look more into this to see what pieces are particularly pertinent and would bolster this article. Bmesido1 (talk) 02:17, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
 * The distinction between the two cycles (lysogenic and lytic) in the lead section really helps. Regarding lambda phage, I see what you mean and agree that a lot of the detail should remain on its own article page.  Looks great so far! Nguych01 (talk) 02:45, 2 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks Nguych01. I ended up including a small summary on what to find on the lambda phage article, with a section redirect that directs to that particular section of the article, rather than to the entire lambda phage article itself. This focused on the control between the lytic and lysogenic cycle. Bmesido1 (talk) 03:22, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

Review by Keilana
Hi guys! You've done a fantastic job so far. I'm especially happy that you've been citing reviews of literature instead of primary sources. That's something that's encouraged on Wikipedia and it's so great that you've picked that up. Keep up the awesome work! I went through the article and came up with a few suggestions for you, feel free to respond here as you work through them. Keilana&#124;Parlez ici 19:14, 21 April 2013 (UTC)


 * The caption on the image would be more helpful if it gave a brief overview of what the differences between the lytic and lysogenic cycles are and how they're apparent in the diagram.
 * Can you gloss or link replicon? The lay reader might not be familiar with that term.
 * I suggest you reword "Lysogenic cycles ca also occur" to "the lysogenic cycle can also occur" and "method of incorporation of DNA" to "method of DNA incorporation".
 * Can you clarify in the lead that in the lysogenic cycle DNA spreads through reproduction? That was unclear in that sentence.
 * I think the section currently titled "Bacteriophages" would be better named "Prokaryotes". That section also needs citations.
 * Can you explain what happens with those 50-60 nucleotides? That wasn't clear in the text.
 * A section on what we do know about lysogeny in eukaryotes would be fantastic!
 * There's no need to bold "lysogenic conversion", the convention on Wikipedia is just to bold the title of the article and its variants in the very first sentence.
 * The last 4 examples in your bulletpointed list need citations. I think at least a couple of them could be cited to Keen 2012. I definitely saw V. cholerae when I was checking your paraphrasing.
 * You could expand on how those anti-induction therapies would work.
 * Where's the edit link in source 1 coming from? I can't find it...
 * For such an important concept, this article is a little short, consider adding another section or two.


 * Hi Keilana, thank you for your input. It now reads "can also occur" and there have been a number of edits that I believe address your concerns. The sections have been re-organized with several potential anti-induction therapies. Though, perhaps bacteriophages should remain as such. Bacteriophages refer to viruses that infect bacteria. Prokaryotes is generally a term that refers to bacteria and archaea. The link for Campbell and Reece does not exist as it is a textbook. The method of DNA incorporation has also been changed. Thanks again! Bmesido1 (talk) 03:30, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

Comment from MartinLubell
Overall, I think that this article is clear and concise, and you don't need to add too much more information. However, I think that, based on Nguych01's previous comment, it would be interesting to add something about "the kinds of conditions that promote lysogeny and a brief mention of multiplicity of infection." <--- AND maybe you have already done that in the lysogenic conversion???

I quickly added a few missing links in your article (one "temperate" and one "phage"). I don't think it hurts that I added more links to the lytic cycle, but if you think it does, remove them. Also, I created a "moron" page to Wikipedia so that its link would not show up in red. I deleted the fitness factors link since there is no easy way to create a new Wikipedia page for that. (Tiny note: in the [5] reference, I didn't see any citation of the words "fitness factors", but I did find them in the article "Probing the Probes: Fitness Factors for small molecule tools" listed in the references to article [5].) In the first paragraph, may I suggest (if it is correct) that the following sentence should be written so: "Lysogeny is characterized by either the integration of the bacteriophage nucleic acid into the host bacterium's genome or the formation of a circular replicon in the bacterium's cytoplasm."

Interesting article! MartinLubell (talk) 03:42, 3 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Actually I was wrong about adding the extra links. Klortho corrected me in another article editing session: once you link a word once, you don't have to do it again. Sorry about that. MartinLubell (talk) 16:03, 3 May 2013 (UTC)


 * In the Bacteriophage section, I got rid Oscar some of the repeated links. MartinLubell (talk) 19:31, 9 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks MartinLubell! I have included a link to the lambda phage section describing the controls and conditions for lytic and lysogenic cycle. In addition, I have included additional details regarding lysogenic conversion and how that affects bacterial survival and virulence. I did not add MOI this time around but it may be good in the future. Thanks again for your feedback. Bmesido1 (talk) 03:34, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

Comments from Tisquestra
Overall, this article does a good job of giving a concise description of the lysogenic cycle. After reading, the viewer is left with a general knowledge of what lysogenic cycle means. However, that said, a few more details could definitely be added (as has already been mentioned in the above comments). I see that there are very frequent comparisons between the lytic cycle and the lysogenic cycle, which leaves few paragraphs to describe the lysogenic cycle in more detail.

There is only one picture that show both the lytic cycle and the lysogenic cycle. I agree with Martin, perhaps this picture is not the best for this particular article. Moreover, the section of the picture describing the lysogenic cycle is a little vague, giving a picture of the prophage adapting itself into the organism. More specific examples might be good to better show the reader exactly how the lysogenic cycle occurs. Additionally, the last sentence of the article briefly describes the "morons" concept, could you perhaps go into this in more depth? To maintain consistency with the topic of the article (ie, lysogeny) perhaps a section on lysogenic conversion may not be the best title. Instead, I would think that perhaps a few examples of organisms in lysogeny would be better befitting. It is also mentioned that the bacteriophage is the ideal organism for studying lysogenic cycles, but why is that? The user could benefit from a more detailed explanation of the lysogenic cycle (and what factors induce it vs not), perhaps along with pictures.

On a side note, the citations themselves seem fine with the exception of the Bacteriophages section. This section did not have any citations that I could see, yet it's in a paragraph on its own. Tisquestra (talk) 04:00, 3 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Hi Tisquestra, thank you for your comments. I found several images that illustrated the lytic and lysogenic cycle quite well - but each had a copyright. I was not 100% sure that they would qualify for "fair use" so I chose not to include them, as per Wikipedia policy. According to the page, the image currently included was made by a contributor and unfortunately an image created by me may be worse. Morons have been included under bacterial virulence for context, since they contribute to their virulence. I believe the main reason lambda phage is commonly used as the model organism is simply because it has precedence and is relatively easy to work with.Bmesido1 (talk) 03:49, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

Final contribution
This page has turned into something of a labor of love. For the final contribution, I have made several changes to the organization. There is a new section I created for fitness tradeoffs for fitness tradeoffs for bacteria under bacteriophage. There is also new content under lysogenic conversion and the previous content was rewritten for clarity. Under lysogenic conversion, there are also new subsections for bacterial survival and bacterial virulence that are a result of lysogenic conversion. Finally, there is a new section for preventing lysogenic conversion, as per the recommendation by Keilana. There are also a number of new sources to support the article with inline citations (sources 3, 4, 5, and 6). Thanks everyone for all your help! Bmesido1 (talk) 03:55, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

In bacteria or in eukaryotes
The present article is about lysogeny in bacterial hosts with a bare mention of its possibility in eukaryotes. The article Virus latency is from the opposite point of view, mentioning latency as a case of lysogeny in its lead paragraph. I have tried to include the reciprocal link in an interesting encyclopædic fashion in the lead paragraph of this article but I think that editing all the article, replacing "bacteriopage" by "virus" and "bacterium" or "protist" everywhere by "host", would be unnecessarily hard labour. Comments welcome. — Tonymec (talk) 10:33, 5 January 2022 (UTC)