microbiology

• Genetics – studies heredity and how traits are passed down from parent to offspring
• Genes – made up of segments of DNA or RNA in viruses
• Conjugation is the process by which one bacterium transfers genetic material to another through direct contact. 
• Transformation - allows a bacterial cell to acquire new genes,

  but it does not require cell-to-cell contact. the process requires a donor cell that at some point lysed and released naked DNA to the environment. The recipient cell is one that is capable of taking up the DNA from the environment and incorporating it into its own genome, where the cell is described as being competent.
• There are mechanical and chemical means of encouraging a cell to pick up DNA from the environment, but natural competence is determined genetically.
• Transduction involves the use of a virus, a bacteriophage, to act as a conduit for shuttling bacteria genes from one cell to another, thus negating the necessity for cell-to-cell contact.
• There are two different types of transduction: generalized

  transduction and specialized transduction.
• Transduction - viral infection of bacterial host cells resulting in the incorporation of viral genes into the host genome.
• Transformation - the uptake of free DNA from the environment by competent cells.
• Conjugation - direct cell-to-cell contact between donor and recipient cells, with plasmid transfer mediated by pilus or conjugative pili.