{"id":4848,"date":"2021-10-24T09:33:13","date_gmt":"2021-10-24T09:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.guyhowto.com\/?p=4848"},"modified":"2021-10-24T09:33:13","modified_gmt":"2021-10-24T09:33:13","slug":"conjugation-in-bacteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guyhowto.com\/conjugation-in-bacteria\/","title":{"rendered":"Conjugation in Bacteria (E. coli)"},"content":{"rendered":"
What is conjugation?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The transfer of genetic material between bacteria<\/a> through cell-to-cell contact is called bacterial conjugation. Conjugation is the mechanism of horizontal gene transfer. And often incorrectly regarded as sexual reproduction.<\/p>\n

Conjugation does not involve the fusion of gametes and the formation of zygotes. That is why it is not actually sexual mating. It is just the transfer of genetic information from a donor to a recipient cell (bacteria).<\/p>\n

Donor<\/strong><\/h6>\n

The bacterial cell which donates conjugative or mobile genetic elements in the form of the conjugative plasmid is called the donor.<\/p>\n

Recipient<\/strong><\/h6>\n

The bacterial cell which accepts or receives the mobile or conjugative genetic, which is not already contained by itself, is called the recipient.<\/p>\n

Most conjugative plasmids have systems that ensure the mechanism that the recipient only receives the unique genetic element. This transferred genetic material can be beneficial to the recipient. Some of them are used to transfer antibiotic resistance or enzymes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mechanism of Conjugation<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\"Mechanism-of-Conjugation\"<\/p>\n

1. Prototype \u2013 F-plasmid<\/strong><\/h6>\n

The prototype for conjugative plasmids is the F \u2013 plasmid which is also known as F \u2013 factor. The F- plasmid is an episome. Episome is a plasmid of about 100 kb length that can integrate itself into the bacterial chromosome by genetic recombination.<\/p>\n

There can be only one copy of the F \u2013 plasmid<\/strong> in a bacterium. Such bacterium is called F – positive or sometimes male bacterium. The bacteria lacking F plasmid are called F \u2013 negative or female bacterium.<\/p>\n