Question

How would you design an experiment to test whether a tranduction event occured between two different bacterial strains?

Answer 1

U tube experiment can be performed for testing transduction between bacterial strain.

U tube is designed to place filter between the two sides of the tube. On either side are two auxotrophic bacterial strains separated by a filter through which only viral particles can pass. Transduction event is mediated by a phage particles. Phage particles infect a host bacterium and insert its genome into bacterial genome. During packing process phage genome is excised along with bacterial genes and packaged into phage particles. If this phage particles infects other bacterial strain, the genes form previous strain are transferred to this bacterial strain. Bacterial strains are auxotrophic for one or more nutrients, therefore if transduction has taken place they become prototrophs and grown in medium lacking the nutrients for which they are auxotrophs.

bacterial strain A: auxotroph for histidine, prototroph for leucine

bacterial strain B: auxotroph for leucine, prototroph for histidine.

if transduction has taken place from A to B , bacterial strain B will receive the leucine biosynthesis gene and grow in medium lacking leucine as opposed to previously