Transduction (genetics)

Transduction is the process by which foreign DNA is introduced into a cell by a virus or viral vector.

[2][3][page needed] Transduction does not require physical contact between the cell donating the DNA and the cell receiving the DNA (which occurs in conjugation), and it is DNase resistant (transformation is susceptible to DNase).

When bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) that are lytic infect bacterial cells, they harness the replicational, transcriptional, and translation machinery of the host bacterial cell to make new viral particles (virions).

[citation needed] The packaging of bacteriophage DNA into phage capsids has low fidelity.

[citation needed] Generalized transduction occurs when random pieces of bacterial DNA are packaged into a phage.

When the bacterial DNA packaged into the virus is inserted into the recipient cell three things can happen to it:[citation needed][5] Specialized transduction is the process by which a restricted set of bacterial genes is transferred to another bacterium.

Here, the donor genes can be inserted into the recipient chromosome or remain in the cytoplasm, depending on the nature of the bacteriophage.

[6] Lateral transduction is the process by which very long fragments of bacterial DNA are transferred to another bacterium.

[citation needed] Some enhancers have been used to improve transduction efficiency such as polybrene, protamine sulfate, retronectin, and DEAE Dextran.