there are different ways on how genes

are

transmitted among organisms the generic

term for those subtypes is

horizontal gene transfer gene transfer

in general can be vertical or horizontal

we speak about vertical gene transfer

when the genetic material

is transmitted from parent to offspring

either by sexual or asexual reproduction

horizontal gene transfer is gene

transfer

between two already existing organisms

the donor transfers genetic material

to a recipient organism that is not the

donor's offspring

we mainly distinguish between those

different subtypes

of the horizontal gene transfer there is

transduction conjugation and

transformation starting with

transformation

one has to mention that this term is

used for bacterial cells

but also plants and other non-animal

eukaryotic cells such as fungi

however all examples in this video will

include bacteria transformation is

the uptake of free genetic material

from the environment by a bacterium

a bacterial cell contains the circular

bacterial chromosome and in addition

also

extra chromosomal plasmid dna that

replicates

autonomously a piece of plasmid dna

floating around in the environment

may have been released by other bacteria

the ability

to take up free dna is called competence

the uptake and expression of new genes

can be of selective advantage

for those cells but not all bacteria are

competent to take up dna by nature

natural competence is restricted to a

small subset of bacterial species

therefore competence can also be induced

by chemical modifications in the lab

to transform the bacterial cell with

plasmid dna

containing the gene sequence of interest

the cell must acquire competence

one method is to use a heat shock

transformation protocol

calcium chloride combined with a short

heat shock

depolarizes the cell membrane making it

permeable

divalent cations especially calcium ions

help to further facilitate the uptake of

the negatively charged dna

in the cell the bacterial cell can

express

the genes on this plasmid and protein is

produced

another form of horizontal gene transfer

is called

transduction we speak about transduction

when the transmission of genetic

material between cells

is carried out by viruses in nature

this happens when a bacteriophage

infects a bacterial cell

the viral nucleic acid is entering the

host cell

and is integrated in the bacterial dna

upon excision errors may occur when

parts of the bacterial dna

are additionally excised by accident

when virus assembly takes place it may

happen

that bacterial host dna is also

encapsulated by

accident the phages are released from

its host cell

this bacteriophage can infect the next

cell

the recipient the nucleic acid

this time also containing bacterial

genes

again enters the cell this sequence is

again integrated into the recipient's

genome genes from the host cell have

been successfully transferred to the

recipient cell

by a viral vector in the lab we use

viral vectors such as lentiviruses

to integrate genes of interest into the

genome of eukaryotic cells

another way of horizontal gene transfer

between bacterial cells

happens through conjugation conjugation

requires cell to cell contact of two

bacteria

it is unidirectional one bacterial cell

is the donor

the other one the recipient besides the

chromosomal dna

the donor contains the fertility factor

a sequence

found on the extra chromosomal f plasmid

the donor is considered f positive

the recipient however has no such f

plasmid
this cell is f negative f positive cells

are able to form an extending structure

reaching out to neighboring cells

this extension is referred to as the sex

pilus

this protein tube attaches to the

recipient cell

and brings the cells together one strand

of the plasmid dna

passes via a channel from the donor to

the recipient

after replication the double stranded

dna is present in both

cells in this case the recipient also

contains the f factor after transfer

from now on it can also be considered f

positive

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