Viral replication (lytic and lysogenic cycles)
Viruses · Biology
Study notes
HIV hides in the lysogenic-style latent phase for years — invisible to drugs and immunity — which is why AIDS has no cure yet; 'shock and kill' therapies try to force it into the lytic cycle. Cold sores (herpes) reactivate from latency when you're stressed — the virus was hiding in your nerves all along. Temperate phages carrying toxin genes turn harmless bacteria deadly (cholera, diphtheria toxins ride in via lysogeny).