The lytic cycle is one of the two cycles of viral

Virus

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...

 reproduction, the other being the lysogenic cycle. The lytic cycle is typically considered the main method of viral replication, since it results in the destruction of the infected cell

Cell (biology)

The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....

. A key difference between the lytic and lysogenic phage cycles is that in the lytic phage, the viral DNA exists as a separate molecule within the bacterial cell, and replicates separately from the host bacterial DNA.