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Medical Definition of Lysogenic bacterium
1. A bacterium in the symbiotic condition in which its genome includes the genome (probacteriophage) of a temperate bacteriophage; in occasional instances the probacteriophage dissociates from the bacterial genome, develops into vegetative bacteriophage, and then matures, causing lysis of the respective host bacterium and release into the culture medium of infective temperate bacteriophage, formerly, a pseudolysogenic bacterial strain, i.e., a "carrier" strain of bacteriophage of low infectivity. (05 Mar 2000)