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Transduction -

Transduction is a process in which a bacteriophage particle carries a segment of the chromosome from one bacteria (the donor) to another bacteria (the recipient). Transduction was discovered by N. Zinder and J. Lederberg. Transduction occurs by two methods, namely, generalized transduction and specialized transduction.

Transduction process in which the viral DNA is inserted into the bacterial chromosome at a random site is known as generalized transduction.

Thus a random or nearly random segment of bacterial DNA is packed up during phage maturation in place of or along with the phage chromosome and transferred into a new bacteria. Phages that carry such a chromosome are called as transducing particles.

Transducing particles of phages are classified into two types based upon the interactions with the bacterial cell Virulent phages always multiply and lyse the host cell after infection. Temperate phages have a choice between two lifestyles after infection. They can either enter lytic or lysogenic pathway.

Not all virulent phages mediate transduction. Bacteriophage (T3, T4 and T6) degrades the host DNA and reutilizes the mononuc1eotides produced, for. the synthesis of phage DNA whereas other bacteriophages (T2, T5 and T6) do not degrade the host DNA at all In such a case, a fragment of DNA from host can be packed, since the host chromosome is too large to be packaged intact.

After a transducing phage injects a fragment of host DNA into a recipient cell, that DNA may be integrated into the host chromosome or remain free in the cytoplasm. Cells that carry non-integrated transducing fragments are called abortive transductants.

They are practically diploid and can be used to carry out complementation tests. As the gene is not integrated it will be transmitted to one progeny cell during each cell division.

 

 

 
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