Locations of site-specific recombination in both phage and bacterial genomes during phage insertion into a bacterium's chromosome, which is associated with temperate phage reduction to a prophage state.
Alternatively, this is where on the surface of a bacterium that a phage recognizes in the course of adsorption.
CAUTION: MULTIPLE MEANINGS
Attachment sites for prophage insertion can be quite specific but absence of a phage's preferred attachment site does not necessarily block phage insertion. In addition, prophages that exist as plasmids do not require attachment sites since insertion into the host chromosome is not required for lysogenization. In terms of virion attachment to a bacterial surface, this event can be either reversible or irreversible, depending on the phage involved, with the reversible step, of course, always preceding the irreversible step.
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