Mechanism of Bacterial Transformation and Transfection

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses that in spite of the large amount of information on the physiology of the competent cell, including the production of competence factors in a number of transformation systems and an additional protein that must be synthesized to permit irreversible binding of DNA by D. pneurnoniae, the mechanism of DNA uptake remains obscure. This process requires energy, divalent cations, and results in breakage of incoming DNA. The DNA apparently enters lengthwise, and in the case of one phage DNA, a particular end enters first. The chapter describes that the enzymology of recombination in transformation and transfection is a difficult problem to solve, as there are indications of alternative enzymatic pathways for recombination, so that mutants blocked in one pathway may not necessarily show loss of ability to be transformed or transfected. There is also the unpleasant possibility that cells with deficiencies in more than one pathway may be inviable, making it difficult to assign biological roles to particular enzymes. The chapter discusses that the enzymological studies of transformation and transfection systems, together with information on intermediates and by-products of recombination and the involvement of membranes in recombination, will provide a coherent picture of the mechanism of transformation and transfection during the next few years.