Home▸Biology▸The Viral Lytic Cycle

🦠 The Viral Lytic Cycle

Interactive 3D animation of a bacteriophage attaching to a host cell, injecting DNA, hijacking replication machinery and lysing the cell, with a step-through control for each stage of the cycle.

Biology2DModerate60 FPS

A tailed bacteriophage attaches to a rod-shaped host cell, injects its DNA, hijacks the cell's own replication machinery to build hundreds of progeny virions, then bursts the cell to release them.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

The five canonical stages of lytic infection — attachment, penetration, biosynthesis, maturation and lysis — shown as a continuous, step-through 3D animation on a single bacterium.

🎮 How to Use

Step through stages with Prev/Next, or let it auto-advance. Adjust cycle speed and burst size, and watch host DNA integrity fall as phage DNA takes over the cell before lysis.

💡 Did You Know?

A single lytic infection can release 50–200+ new phage particles from one bacterium in as little as 20–30 minutes — one of the fastest reproductive cycles in biology.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D animation of a bacteriophage attaching to a host cell, injecting DNA, hijacking replication machinery and lysing the cell, with a step-through control for each stage of the cycle.

lytic-cyclevirus-replicationbacteriophagevirologycell-lysismicrobiology

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install