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Bacterial conjugation
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Bacterial conjugation
Bacterial conjugation is the transfer of genetic material between bacterial cells by direct cell-to-cell contact or by a bridge-like connection between two cells. This takes place through a pilus.[full citation needed] It is a parasexual mode of reproduction in bacteria.
It is a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer as are transformation and transduction although these two other mechanisms do not involve cell-to-cell contact.
Classical E. coli bacterial conjugation is often regarded as the bacterial equivalent of sexual reproduction or mating, since it involves the exchange of genetic material. However, it is not sexual reproduction, since no exchange of gamete occurs, and indeed no generation of a new organism: instead, an existing organism is transformed. During classical E. coli conjugation, the donor cell provides a conjugative or mobilizable genetic element that is most often a plasmid or transposon. Most conjugative plasmids have systems ensuring that the recipient cell does not already contain a similar element.
The genetic information transferred is often beneficial to the recipient. Benefits may include antibiotic resistance, xenobiotic tolerance or the ability to use new metabolites. Other elements can be detrimental, and may be viewed as bacterial parasites.
Conjugation in Escherichia coli by spontaneous zygogenesis and in Mycobacterium smegmatis by distributive conjugal transfer differ from the better studied classical E. coli conjugation in that these cases involve substantial blending of the parental genomes.
The process was discovered by Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum in 1946.
Conjugation diagram
The F-factor is an episome (a plasmid that can integrate itself into the bacterial chromosome by homologous recombination) with a length of about 100 kb. It carries its own origin of replication, the oriV, and an origin of transfer, or oriT. There can only be one copy of the F-plasmid in a given bacterium, either free or integrated, and bacteria that possess a copy are called F-positive or F-plus (denoted F+). Cells that lack F plasmids are called F-negative or F-minus (F−) and as such can function as recipient cells.[citation needed]
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Bacterial conjugation AI simulator
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Bacterial conjugation
Bacterial conjugation is the transfer of genetic material between bacterial cells by direct cell-to-cell contact or by a bridge-like connection between two cells. This takes place through a pilus.[full citation needed] It is a parasexual mode of reproduction in bacteria.
It is a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer as are transformation and transduction although these two other mechanisms do not involve cell-to-cell contact.
Classical E. coli bacterial conjugation is often regarded as the bacterial equivalent of sexual reproduction or mating, since it involves the exchange of genetic material. However, it is not sexual reproduction, since no exchange of gamete occurs, and indeed no generation of a new organism: instead, an existing organism is transformed. During classical E. coli conjugation, the donor cell provides a conjugative or mobilizable genetic element that is most often a plasmid or transposon. Most conjugative plasmids have systems ensuring that the recipient cell does not already contain a similar element.
The genetic information transferred is often beneficial to the recipient. Benefits may include antibiotic resistance, xenobiotic tolerance or the ability to use new metabolites. Other elements can be detrimental, and may be viewed as bacterial parasites.
Conjugation in Escherichia coli by spontaneous zygogenesis and in Mycobacterium smegmatis by distributive conjugal transfer differ from the better studied classical E. coli conjugation in that these cases involve substantial blending of the parental genomes.
The process was discovered by Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum in 1946.
Conjugation diagram
The F-factor is an episome (a plasmid that can integrate itself into the bacterial chromosome by homologous recombination) with a length of about 100 kb. It carries its own origin of replication, the oriV, and an origin of transfer, or oriT. There can only be one copy of the F-plasmid in a given bacterium, either free or integrated, and bacteria that possess a copy are called F-positive or F-plus (denoted F+). Cells that lack F plasmids are called F-negative or F-minus (F−) and as such can function as recipient cells.[citation needed]
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