To understand the process of transduction we need to distinguish two types of phage cycle.

Virulent phages are those that immediately lyse and kill the host.

Temperate phages can remain within the host cell for a period without killing it.

Their DNA either integrates into the host chromosome to replicate with it or replicates like a
plasmid, separately in the cytoplasm.

A phage integrated into the bacterial genome is called a prophage.

A bacterium harboring a quiescent phage is called lysogenic. Occasionally a lysogenic

bacterium lyses spontaneously.

Only temperate phages can transduce.

.
 In the lytic cycle (Figure
2), sometimes referred to
as virulent infection, the
infecting phage ultimately
kill the host cell to produce
many of their own
progeny. Immediately
following injection into the
host cell, the phage
genome synthesizes early
proteins that break down
the host DNA, allowing the
phage to take control of
the cellular machinery.

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Some bacterial viruses, called temperate phages, can establish a nonlytic association
with their host cells that does not kill the cell.

When bacteriophage infects E. coli, the viral DNA may be integrated into the host-cell
chromosome rather than being replicated.

The integrated viral DNA, called a prophage, is replicated as part of the cell’s DNA
from one host-cell generation to the next.

This phenomenon is referred to as lysogeny.

Under certain conditions, the prophage DNA is activated, leading to its excision from
the host-cell chromosome, entrance into the lytic cycle, and subsequent
production and release of progeny virions.

There are two kinds of transduction: generalized and specialized.

Generalized transducing phages can carry any part of the bacterial chromosome,
whereas specialized transducing phages carry only certain specific parts
 The lysogenic cycle (Figure 3),
sometimes referred to as temperate or
non-virulent infection, does not kill the
host cell, instead using it as a refuge
where it exists in a dormant state.
Following the injection of the phage
DNA into the host cell, it integrates itself
into the host genome, with the help of
phage-encoded integrases, where it is
then termed a prophage. The prophage
genome is then replicated passively
along with the host genome as the host
cell divides for as long as it remains
there and does not form the proteins
required to produce progeny. As the
phage genome is generally
comparatively small, the bacterial hosts
are normally relatively unharmed by this
process

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 Generalized transduction

By what mechanisms can a phage carry out generalized transduction?

In 1965, K. Ikeda and J. Tomizawa threw light on this question in some experiments on the
E. coli phage P1.
They found that when a donor cell is lysed by P1, the bacterial chromosome is broken up
into small pieces.

Occasionally, the newly forming phage particles mistakenly incorporate a piece of the
bacterial DNA into a phage head in place of phage DNA.

This event is the origin of the transducing phage. A phage carrying bacterial DNA can infect
another cell.
That bacterial DNA can then be incorporated into the recipient cell’s chromosome by
recombination.

Because genes on any of the cut-up parts of the host genome can be transduced, this type
of transduction is the generalized type.
Phages P1 and P22 both belong to a phage group that shows generalized transduction.
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Generalized transduction can be used to obtain bacterial linkage information when genes are
close enough that the phage can pick them up and transduce them

• Suppose that we wanted to find the linkage between met and arg in E. coli.

• We could grow phage P1 on a donor met+ arg+ strain, and then allow P1 phages
from lysis of this strain to infect a met-arg- strain.

• First, one donor allele is selected, say, met.

• Then, the percentage of met+ colonies that is also arg+ is measured.

• Strains transduced to both met and arg are called cotransductants. The greater
the cotransduction frequency, the closer two genetic markers
must be.
 Mechanism of specialized transduction

• λ INSERTION: The interrupted-mating experiments described above showed that the

prophage is part of the lysogenic bacterium’s chromosome.

• How is the prophage inserted into the bacterial genome?

• In 1962, Allan Campbell proposed that it inserts by a single crossover between a circular
chromosome and the circular E. coli chromosome.

• The crossover point would be between a specific site in λ, the λ attachment site, and an
attachment site in the bacterial chromosome located between the genes gal and
• bio, because λ integrates at that position in the E. coli chromosome.

• The crossing-over is mediated by a phage encoded recombination system.

Integration of the prophage into the E. coli chromosome should increase the genetic distance between
flanking bacterial markers for gal and bio. In fact, studies show that lysogeny does increase time-of-entry
or recombination distances between the bacterial genes.
• As a prophage, λ always inserts between the gal region and the bio region of the host
chromosome and in transduction experiments, as expected, can transduce only the
gal and bio genes.

• How does carry away neighboring genes?

• The explanation lies again in an imperfect reversal of the Campbell insertion
mechanism, as for generalized transduction.
• The recombination event between specific regions of and the bacterial chromosome is
catalyzed by a specialized enzyme system.
• The attachment site and the enzyme that uses this site as a substrate dictate that
integrates only at that point in the chromosome.
• Furthermore, during lysis the prophage normally excises at precisely the correct point
to produce a normal circular chromosome.

• Very rarely, excision is abnormal owing to faulty outlooping and can result in phage
particles that now carry a nearby gene and leave behind some phage genes

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How are other phages, which act as specialized transducers, able to carry only certain host
genes to recipient cells?

The short answer is that specialized transducers insert into the bacterial chromosome at one
position only.

When they exit, a faulty outlooping occurs.

Hence they can pick up and transduce only genes that are close by.
The resulting phage genome is defective because of the genes left behind,
but it has also gained a bacterial gene gal or bio.

These phages are referred to as dgal (-defective gal) or dbio.

The abnormal DNA carrying nearby genes can be packaged into phage heads and can
infect other bacteria.

In the presence of a second, normal phage particle in a double infection, the dgal can
integrate into the chromosome at the attachment site.

In this manner, the gal genes in this case are transduced into the second host.