Abstract
GENERALISED transduction—the transfer of bacterial genes from one cell to another via bacteriophages—is one of a small number of processes by which bacteria can acquire exogenous genetic information. Transduction was first demonstrated in Salmonella typhimurium with the phage P22 by Zinder and Lederberg1,2 and subsequently in Escherichia coli with the phages P13 and T14. Bacteriophage T4 is the largest, and one of the most thoroughly studied of the virulent coliphages but has never been observed to mediate generalised transduction. In this report we describe a multiple mutant of T4 that displays the property of generalised transduction, and transfers E. coli genes with frequencies that, in general, are higher than those observed for other transducing phages.
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WILSON, G., YOUNG, K., EDLIN, G. et al. High-frequency generalised transduction by bacteriophage T4. Nature 280, 80–82 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/280080a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/280080a0
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