In: Biology
certain bacteriophages can move bacterial DNA from a donor bacterium to a recipient bacterium. Name the two processes that describe these events
Bacteriophage is a type of virus that can infect bacteria and inject its genome into the host, the bacteria then produces dozens of viruses. The bacteriophage attaches to the specific cells based on the host cell surface receptors (but not because it is propelled by the bacteriophage tail). The mechanism of genetic recombination by means of bacteriophage:
Transduction - Involve the genetic material transfer, but this needs bacteriophage as media. The bacteriophage infects the bacteria in lytic cycle and releases the new virions, the capsids of some of these virions carry the bacterial DNA fragments into the new host bacteria, followed by genetic recombination of the host bacteria.
Another mechanism throuh which bacteriophage transfer the genetic material is, genetic transformation. Transformation type of gene transfer occurs between bacteria. The genes released by dead bacteria can be transferred to the live bacteria, and get integrated into its genome, which results in genetic recombination of the host.