Bacteriophage lambda is a
virus which
infects
E. coli. It has a
complex set of
regulatory mechanisms to determine whether it will:
- lysogenize the bacterium: quietly insert its DNA into the bacterium's genome and become dormant, waiting to be reproduced whenever the bacterium reproduces
- lyse the bacterium: hijack the bacterium's cellular machinery to reproduce itself and prepare to infect more bacteria, causing the bacterium to self-destruct shortly after infection
This bacteriophage is particularly useful to geneticists because parts of it can be used to introduce foreign DNA into a bacterium's genome. It is often used in laboratory research as a cloning vector.
From the science dictionary at http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/