Bacterial Virus Genetics
The direct transfer of DNA from one bacterium to another, often via a pilus.
What is conjugation?
The mutant phenotype will occur only in the
descendants of that cell and will not be transmitted to the progeny
What is a somatic mutation?
Traits that do not show simple inheritance patterns and are influenced by several to many genes
What are polygenic traits?
The process where a bacterium takes up naked, foreign DNA from its environment.
What is transformation?
The process where bacterial DNA is transferred from one bacterium to another by a bacteriophage (virus).
What is transduction?
Occurs without a known cause due to inherent
metabolic errors or unknown agents in the environment
What is a spontaneous mutation?
This class of traits, like pea pod color, is characterized by distinct, non-overlapping phenotypes.
What are discrete traits?
Recombination event occurs between the host chromosome and the phage chromosome, producing a phage chromosome that contains a piece of bacterial DNA
What is specialized transduction?
The genetic element that dictates a bacterial cell's ability to be a donor cell during conjugation.
What is the F factor?
A point mutation where a a purine is replaced by a pyrimidine, or a pyrimidine is replaced by a purine
What is a transversion?
These common human traits, including height and weight, are said to vary continuously in a population
What are complex traits?
The general term for a strain of bacteria that is unable to synthesize a particular nutrient and requires it to be added to the growth medium.
What is an auxotroph?
A type of cell that can transfer a portion of the bacterial chromosome along with the F factor to a recipient cell.
What is an Hfr cell?
A mutation that typically results in a functional protein that is made at the wrong time or in the wrong place
What is a Gain of Function (GOF) mutation?
The variation in a trait observed within a pure line of organisms must be due to this type of variation
What is uncontrolled environmental variation?
This type of mutation truncates the protein by causing a premature STOP codon.
What is a nonsense mutation?
The type of bacteriophage that can either enter the lytic cycle or integrate its DNA into the host chromosome, entering the lysogenic cycle.
What is a temperate phage?
The exception to the Loss of Function rule where the single wild-type allele is not sufficient for a normal phenotype
What is haploinsufficiency?
A type of quantitative trait, like heart disease, that only appears when the accumulation of underlying risk factors, known as liability, exceeds a specific point.
What are threshold traits?
The exception where a mutant allele interferes with the function of a wild-type allele, causing a mutant phenotype in the heterozygote.
What is a dominant negative mutation?