Bacterial genetic transfer mechanisms, plasmids, growth curve phases, and biofilm formation, one concept per card.
34 cards · basic cards · AI-written, checked twice. Edit anything.
- What is bacterial transformation?
- Uptake of naked (free) DNA from the environment by a bacterial cell.
- What is bacterial competence?
- The physiological state of being able to take up extracellular DNA.
- Which classic experiment first demonstrated bacterial transformation?
- Griffith's experiment with Streptococcus pneumoniae strains.
- What did the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment identify?
- DNA as the molecule responsible for bacterial transformation.
- What is generalized transduction?
- A lytic phage mistakenly packages a random fragment of host bacterial DNA into a phage capsid and transfers it to another bacterium.
- What is specialized transduction?
- A lysogenic phage excises imprecisely from the host chromosome, carrying adjacent bacterial genes to the next bacterium it infects.
- What is lysogenic conversion?
- A change in a bacterium's phenotype caused by genes carried by a prophage integrated into its genome.
- Which toxin's gene is delivered to Corynebacterium diphtheriae by a lysogenic phage?
- Diphtheria toxin.
- Which toxin's gene is delivered to Vibrio cholerae by a lysogenic phage?
- Cholera toxin.
- Which toxin's gene is delivered to E. coli O157:H7 by a lysogenic phage?
- Shiga toxin.
- What is bacterial conjugation?
- Direct transfer of DNA from a donor to a recipient bacterium through cell-to-cell contact via a pilus.
- What is transferred during F+ x F- conjugation?
- Only the F plasmid; the recipient becomes F+.
- What is transferred during Hfr x F- conjugation?
- The F plasmid plus adjacent chromosomal genes; the recipient rarely becomes F+.
- What structure allows an F+ or Hfr bacterium to attach to a recipient for conjugation?
- The sex pilus.
- What is a transposon?
- A mobile genetic element that can move between different locations in DNA, including between a plasmid and a chromosome.