Transformation - Bacterial Reproduction
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In 1928 Griffith noticed that a culture of Streptococcus pneumoniae that had mutated to become deficient in capsule production could be restored to its normal capsulate form by incubation with a cell-free filtrate taken from a culture of the normal strain.
TRANSFORMATION
In 1928 Griffith noticed
that a culture of Streptococcus pneumoniae that had mutated to become
deficient in capsule production could
be restored to its normal capsulate form by incubation with a cell-free
filtrate taken from a culture of the normal strain. While this discovery
preceded the discovery of DNA as the genetic library and was only poorly
understood at the time, it demonstrated the ability of certain types of
bacteria to absorb small pieces of naked DNA from the environment that may
recombine into the recipient chromosome. The process has become known as
transformation and is likely to occur naturally in situations such as septic
abscesses and in biofilms where high cell densities are associated with death
and lysis of significant portions of the population. Transformation is also
exploited in molecular biology as a means of transferring genes between
different types of bacteria.
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