SYN: probacteriophage.
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pro·phage 'prō-.fāj, -.fäzh n an intracellular form of a bacteriophage in which it is harmless to the host, is usu. integrated into the hereditary material of the host, and reproduces when the host does
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pro·phage (proґfāj) [pro- + phage] the latent stage of a phage in a lysogenic bacterium, in which the viral genome becomes inserted into a specific portion of the host chromosome and is duplicated each cell generation.Medical dictionary. 2011.