bacterial transduction (How can it occur?)

[scilearner]

In bacterial transduction bacteriophages contain DNA from other bacteria and infect other cells. My question is how can this occur because afer bacteriophage infects a bacteria it would die. So even if it got new bacterial DNA it would still die.

[CharonY]

Note that bacteriophages can only pack a limited amount of DNA. If they accidentally put host DNA into their capsids, they lose some of their own. So if they infect the new cell they inject their original host's DNA instead of their own. Without their own DNA, however, they cannot hijack their new host's cellular functions.

[scilearner]

Note that bacteriophages can only pack a limited amount of DNA. If they accidentally put host DNA into their capsids, they lose some of their own. So if they infect the new cell they inject their original host's DNA instead of their own. Without their own DNA, however, they cannot hijack their new host's cellular functions.

 

Thank you for the nice precise answer One question though, in general transduction the dna goes in to the capsid not the viral genome so wouldn't the bacteriophage still have its viral genome in this case.

[GDG]

The Wikipedia entry on Transduction should answer your questions in detail.