defective bacteriophage

de·fec·tive bac·te·ri·o·phage

a temperate bacteriophage mutant with a genome that does not contain all normal components and cannot become a fully infectious virus, yet can replicate indefinitely in the bacterial genome as defective probacteriophage; many defective bacteriophages are mediators of transduction. Synonym(s): defective phage

de·fec·tive bac·te·ri·o·phage

(dĕ-fek'tiv bak-tēr'ē-ō-fāj) A temperate bacteriophage mutant the genome of which does not contain all of the normal components and cannot become a fully infectious virus, but it can replicate indefinitely in the bacterial genome as a defective probacteriophage; many defective bacteriophages are mediators of transduction.