ZICHEN LIU1, YUNFENG DENG2, MENGZHI JI1, WENQING SUN2,*, XIANGYU FAN1,*
BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.2, pp. 157-166, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.09917
Abstract Prophages are temperate phages integrated into the host bacterial genome. They play an important role in the
adaptation and the pathogenicity of bacteria, especially pathogenic bacteria. In this review, we described the distribution
of prophages in different hosts and different environments, and focused on the significance of prophages. At the singlecell level, prophages can help the host adapt to harsh external environments by directly carrying virulence genes, encoding
regulatory factors and activating lysogeny. At the population level, prophages can influence the overall evolutionary
direction and ecological function of the host bacterial community. This review will help us understand the important… More >
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