TRANSDUCTION IN
BACTERIA
SUBMITTED TO: Muhammad Nawaz
SUBMITTED BY: Syeda Bisma
Content
Bacteriophage and its Types
Transduction
Discovery and Types of transduction
Generalized Transduction
Specialized Transduction
Application of transduction
2
Horizontal gene Transfer
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the transfer of genetic
material from one bacteria to another.
It is mediated by three methods;
• Transformation
• Conjugation
• Transduction
Transduction
Transduction is the process by which DNA is transferred from
one bacteria to another via a bacteriophage (virus that infects
bacteria).
• It does not require physical contact between two cells to
transfer the genes.
• It is not inactivated by DNase enzyme.
History
• The phenomenon of transduction was first discovered by
Norton Zinder and Joshua Lederberg in 1952 using
Salmonella typhimurium.
• The used two Salmonella auxotrophic strains LA-22 (auxotroph
for methionine and histidine) and LA-2 (auxotroph for
phenylalanine and tryptophan).
Experiment
• Zinder and Joshua mixed two strains of Salmonella in the U-
tube with minimal medium and recovered prototrophic cells
(grow in minimal medium).
• They observed that there is some filterable agent that transfer
phenylalanine and tryptophan marker from strain LA-2 to LA-
22 making it prototrophic.
• Later they proposed that the filterable agent is bacteriophage
which is responsible for genetic recombination btw two strains.
Bacteriophage
Transduction is virus mediated bacterial DNA transfer. Virus
that infect bacteria are called bacteriophages.
The structure model of a phage:
The phage head is icosohedral
with approximately 80 to 100nm
in size. It consist of the capsid
protein that surrounds the nucleic
acid. The tail is tubular structure
containing tail collar, tube , sheath,
fibers and base plate.
The life cycle of virus consist of
five steps:
• Virus attachment to host cell.
• Entry of virus into the host cell.
• Synthesis of viral nucleic acid
and protein within the host cell.
• Self assembly of virions within the host cell.
• Release and maturation of virion from the host cell.
Types of Bacteriophage
On the basis of their replication cycle bacteriophages are of two
types:
• Lytic (Virulent) bacteriophage
• Lysogenic (Temperate) bacteriophage
Lytic Bacteriophages
• Lytic bacteriophages are those that break open or lyse the host
bacterial cell immediately after replication of the virion.
• When bacterial cell lysed then phage progeny find new host cell
to infect.
• The phage that carry out Lytic Cycle are called Virulent or Lytic
phages.
• T4 is virulent phage which infects Escherichia coli.
Lysogenic Bacteriophage
• Lysogenic phages are the one that do not result in immediate
lysis of the host bacterial cell.
• Viral genome gets stably integrated into the host genome
forming a prophage.
• The prophage DNA which has the viral DNA incorporated
passed down to the daughter cell when bacterial cell divides.
• The phage remains dormant and does not harm the host cell.
Lysogenic Bacteriophage
• Under the unfavorable and stressful conditions (UV exposure,
depletion of nutrients) the phage genome release out the host
cell and the phage switches to Lytic cycle.
• Bacteriophage then initiate their genome replication, assemble
and result in lysis of the host cell to release out.
• The phage that carry out the Lysogenic cycle are the temperate
phage.
• Lambda λphage is temperate phage which infects the
Escherichia coli.
Lytic VS Lysogenic Cycle
Types of Transduction
Depending on the part of bacterial DNA that is conveyed to the
recipient cell, transduction can be classified into two types:
• Generalized Transduction (Any piece of bacteria genome can be
transferred)
• Specialized Transduction (only specific piece of bacteria
chromosomes can be transferred)
Generalized Transduction
Generalized transduction is the process by which any bacterial
gene can be transferred.
• The genetic transfer is mediated by virulent bacteriophage.
• It is a rare event with 1 in 10,000 phages being transducing.
• Generalized transducing phage have a packaging error and thus
by mistake pack segment of bacterial DNA in place of viral
genome leading to the formation of transducing phage.
Generalized Transduction
• The quantity of bacterial DNA carried depends primarily on the
size of the capsid.
• Capsid can contain only a limited quantity of DNA, viral DNA
is left behind.
• The P22 phage of Salmonella typhimurium usually carries
about 1% of the bacterial genome; the P1 phage of E. coli and a
variety of Gram-negative bacteria carries about 2.0 to 2.5% of
the genome.
Generalized Transduction
• The resulting virus particle often injects the DNA into another
bacterial cell but does not initiate a lytic cycle.
• This phage is known as a generalized transducing particle or
phage and is simply a carrier of genetic information from the
original bacterium to another cell.
Fate of DNA that enters the recipient cell:
• The DNA can be degraded.
• It can circularized to become plasmid.
• It can get inserted into host genome if matches with
homologous region of bacterial chromosomes.
Examples of generalized transducing phage include Escherichia
coli P1 and Salmonella typhimurium P22.
Escherichia coli Phage P1 - Generalized
Transducing Phage
Abortive Transduction
• Abortive transduction is an event in which transducing DNA
fails to be incorporated into the recipient chromosomes.
• The bacterial DNA remains the cytoplasm and does not
replicated but is transmitted to one progeny cell following each
division.
• Only a single cell, partially diploid for the transduced genes is
produced.
Application of Generalized Transduction
Generalized transduction is used to study:
• Comparing genomes of two different bacteria and mutagenesis.
• To link information
• Gene mapping
Specialized Transduction
• In specialized or restricted transduction, the transducing particle
carries only specific portions of the bacterial genome.
• It takes place via temperate phages, i.e., phages that undergo
both lysogenic and lytic cycle.
• When lysogenic bacteriophages infect host cells, their DNA is
incorporated into the host’s genome by site-specific
recombination.
Specialized Transduction
• Temperate bacteriophage enter into donor bacteria and then its
genome gets integrated with host cell’s DNA at certain location
and remains dormant and pass generation to generation into
daughter cell during cell division.
• When such lysogenic cell is exposed to certain stimulus such as
some chemicals or UV lights, it causes induction of virus
genome from host cell genome and begins lytic cycle.
Specialized Transduction
• Upon excision of the prophage from bacterial DNA, certain
segments of the bacterial DNA that are adjacent to the prophage
are also removed. Consequently, the newly encapsulated phage
genome comprises both bacterial and viral genetic material.
• Later, when the virus carrying the recombinant genome infects
a different bacterial cell, the bacterial gene is also incorporated
into the host genome alongside the viral genome via lysogeny.
Example of a specialized transducing phage is Lambda λphage.
Escherichia coli λ Phage - Specialized
Transducing Phage
• Integrated lambda phage lies next to gal genes.
• When it excises normally the new phage is complete and
contains no bacterial gene .
• When excision occurs rarely, the gal genes are then picked up
and some phage genes are lost.
• The result is a defective lambda phage that carries bacterial
genes and can transfer them to a new recipient
Types of specialized Transduction
Depending on the frequency of transducing phages obtained after
lysis of the host cell, specialized transduction categorized into
two forms:
• Low Frequency Transduction (LFT).
• High Frequency Transduction (HFT).
Low Frequency Transducing (LFT)
Lysate
• LFT Lysates are the Lysates containing mostly normal phages
and just a few specialized transducing phages.
• LFT is a result of rare incorrect excision events from a single
Lysogen produce transducing particles at about 10-6 to 10-7 of
the total phage particles in the Lysate.
High Frequency Transducing (LFT) Lysate
• Lysates containing a relatively large number of specialized
transducing phages.
• They are created by co-infecting a host cell with a helper phage
(normal phage) and a transducing phage.
• Co-infection with helper phage allows the transducing phage to
replicate as it provides functional counterparts of genes that are
lacking in transducing phage, thus increasing the number of
transducing phages in the Lysate.
Applications of Specialized Transducing
phages
• Can be used as a cloning vehicle as the can be transfer specific
bacterial genes into the recipient cell.
• The λgal can serve as a source of gal DNA for base sequencing
method.
• Specialized transducing phages have served as hybridization
probes for identifying specific mRNA molecule.
