Prophage

A prophage is a bacteriophage genome. It is part of the circular bacterial DNA chromosome, or it is a plasmid outside the circular chromosome..

Formation of a prophage

This is a latent form of a phage: the viral genes are there in the bacterium but cause no disruption of the bacterial cell.

Pro means "before", so, prophage means the stage of a virus inserted into host DNA before being activated inside the host.^[1]

Prophages are important agents of horizontal gene transfer.^[2]