MICROBIOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGY

BACTERIAL GENE TRANSFER HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER

TOPIC OUTLINE ➢ A process in which an organism transfers

1 BACTERIAL GENE TRANSFER
2 2 WAYS TO ACQUIRE NEW GENETIC TRAITS
3 HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER
4 MECHANISMS OF HORIZONTAL GENE
TRANSFER
BACTERIAL GENE TRANSFER
➢ Bacteria are able to respond to selective
pressures and adapt to new
environments by acquiring new genetic
traits in 2 ways: MUTATION and
HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER
genetic material to another organism
that is not its offspring.
➢ Bacteria adapt to new environments as a
part of bacterial evolution most
frequently results from the acquisition of
new genes through horizontal gene
transfer
✓ E.g.: pathogenicity islands impart
virulence

2 WAYS TO ACQUIRE NEW GENETIC TRAITS

2 WAYS TO ACQUIRE NEW GENETIC TRAITS

1 MUTATION
2 HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER

MUTATION

MECHANISMS OF HORIZONTAL GENE

TRANSFER

THREE MECHANISMS OF HORIZONTAL GENE

TRANSFER
1 TRANSFORMATION
➢ a modification of gene function within a
2 TRANSDUCTION
bacterium
3 CONJUGATION
➢ Mutation occurs relatively slowly,
although when bacterial populations are
TRANSFORMATION
under stress, they can greatly increase
their mutation rate.
➢ a form of genetic recombination in which
➢ Most mutations are harmful to the
a DNA fragment from a dead, degraded
bacterium
bacterium enters a competent recipient
bacterium and is exchanged for a piece
HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER
of DNA of the recipient.
➢ Some bacteria are naturally competent
➢ the acquisition of new genes from other
and transformable:
bacteria.
➢ Enables bacteria to respond and adapt to
their environment much more rapidly by
acquiring large DNA sequences from
another bacterium in a single transfer.

DRGB 1
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BACTERIA
✓ Neisseria gonorrhoeae
✓ Neisseria meningitidis
✓ Haemophilus influenza
Streptococcus pneumoniae

TRANSFORMATION PROCESS

TRANSDUCTION

➢ Involves the transfer of a DNA fragment

from one bacterium to another by a
bacteriophage.
➢ There are two forms of transduction:
generalized transduction and specialized
transduction.

TWO FORMS OF TRANSDUCTION

✓ generalized transduction
✓ specialized transduction

TRANSDUCTION PROCESS

DRGB 2
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CONJUGATION

➢ It involves a donor bacterium that

contains a conjugative plasmid and a
recipient cell that does not.
➢ A conjugative plasmid is self-
transmissible, in that it possesses all the
necessary genes for that plasmid to
transmit itself to another bacterium by
conjugation.

DRGB 3
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DRGB 4