Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:19:51 BST CiteULike: niallhaslam Lindner http://www.citeulike.org/user/niallhaslam/author/Lindner CiteULike.org en-gb Copyright © 2004-2008 citeulike.org http://www.citeulike.org/user/niallhaslam/article/2530769 <i>Science, Vol. 319, No. 5869. (14 March 2008), pp. 1533-1536.</i><br /><br />Conjugation allows bacteria to acquire genes for antibiotic resistance, novel virulence attributes, and alternative metabolic pathways. Using a fluorescent protein fusion, SeqA-YFP, we have visualized this process in real time and in single cells of Escherichia coli. We found that the F pilus mediates DNA transfer at considerable cell-to-cell distances. Integration of transferred DNA by recombination occurred in up to 96% of recipients; in the remaining cells, the transferred DNA was fully degraded by the RecBCD helicase/nuclease. The acquired integrated DNA was tracked through successive replication rounds and was found to occasionally split and segregate with different chromosomes, leading to the inheritance of different gene clusters within the cell lineage. The incidence of DNA splitting corresponds to about one crossover per cell generation. 10.1126/science.1153498 Direct Visualization of Horizontal Gene Transfer Ana Babic Ariel Lindner Marin Vulic Eric Stewart Miroslav Radman doi:10.1126/science.1153498 Science, Vol. 319, No. 5869. (14 March 2008), pp. 1533-1536. 2008-03-14T05:48:40-00:00 2008 Science 319 5869 1533 1536 evolution horizontal-gene-transfer