In short the lysogenic cycle is the longer one. The lytic cycle is the shorter one.
We have a virus that has a fancy name of lambda phage. We’ll call it Lambda.
This is the cunning Lambda.
He naturally wants to spread his wrath and infection wherever he can. But he knows he can’t do it alone. There’s strength in numbers. But as nature would have it Lambda cannot reproduce by itself . It can neither make more copies of itself like plants do(asexual reproduction). Nor can it make new offspring like animals do(sexual reproduction).
So Lambda gets a bizarre idea. Why doesn’t he use someone else to make copies of himself? As it turns out Lambda can use to make more copies of himself. Much to the chagrin of bacteria.
But what if Lambda could get even more companions by injecting the same amount of DNA once? Now that would be even better he thinks.
The signal then comes from Lambda and Infact just after it the Lytic Cycle begins as above. But this time not only in one bacterial cell but in that cell’s offspring too. So more Lambda copies are made then before.
Here’s an animation that’ll make you understanding even deeper.http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0072556781/student_view0/chapter17/animation_quiz_2.html
How are the lytic and lysogenic cycles different?
February 8th, 2019 admin