The process of phage adsorption, infection, and release where the infection step at some point is lytic; a phage life cycle that involves a lytic infection.
CAUTION: POTENTIALLY AMBIGUOUS TERM
The lytic cycle, as equivalent to a phage life cycle, exists as two distinct types, ones that begin with adsorption, and which could be described as "immediate lytic cycles", and ones that begin with prophage induction (which could be described as "induced lytic cycles"). In either case, note that the actual lytic infection is only a portion of the overall lytic cycle.
To some degree the term "lytic cycle" is a misnomer if the term is used to describe a phage life cycle that also involves lysogenic infection: that is, adsorption → lysogenic infection → induction → lytic infection → release → adsorption is a life cycle that involves a lytic infection but strictly is not a "lytic cycle".
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