In: Biology
Which is more likely to be a specialized transducing phage- a lytic or temperate phage? Why?
Transduction is the process by which a foreign DNA is incorporated into host cell using viruses or bacteriophages. It is possible with both lytic and lysogenic (temperate) phages.
Specialised transduction is the transfer or specific DNA from bacteria to host cell.
The specialized transducer phage must be a temperate phages, which transduces the special gene located at its integration site. In specialized transduction, the transducer temperate phage picks up a piece of the host DNA at the immediate vicinity of its established prophage site. When this modified phage infects another bacterium, it may integrate into the host genome the gene that it picked up from the previous host.
The lytic phages are capable of infecting and killing bacterial cells to release phage progeny. The temperate phages, rather than lysing the cell, can integrate into the host chromosome. Here they become prophages and are replicated along with the rest of the bacterial genome when the cell divides.
Therefore a temperate (lysogenic) phage is more likely to be a specialised transducing phage.