Induction of Lytic Cycle

[Jules19]

How would a lytic cycle be induced when a prophage is dormant in its host's genome?
I've read about lytic/lysogenic cycles a couple times but text books are always really vague about what would cause an induction. Does anyone know of any examples?

[priyajoshi]

Textbooks are vague for a reason--because no one really knows why. Its always described as "stress" to the cell. One example is exposure to UV radiation. I've included a link to an abstract that may help also.

http://bit.ly/bCM7Js

[mkwaje]

yup.. priyajoshi is right. The right conditions have to be in place. Sometimes all it takes is a few seconds under a UV lamp or an increase in incubation temperature. Sometimes, certain chemicals trigger the lytic cycle.

[bellyjelly]

Can you give me some links where i can read about induction of lytic cycle or what is it?

[tyra99]

Lytic cycle is one one of the two alternative life cycles of a virus inside a host cell, whereby the virus that has entered a cell takes over the cell's replication mechanism, makes viral DNA and viral proteins, and then lyses (breaks open) the cell, allowing the newly produced viruses to leave the now disintegrated host cell to infect other cells. This method of replication is contrasted with the lysogenic cycle, whereby the virus that has infected a cell attaches itself to the host DNA and, acting like an inert segment of the DNA, replicates when the host cell divides. The lysogenic cycle causes no harm to the host cell, but the lytic cycle results in the destruction of the infected cell.