A nonspore-forming, gram-positive bacillus was isolated from a throat specimen from a primary school-aged child who had not been vaccinated with the DTaP vaccine. The strain isolated carried a bacteriophage on which the gene for toxin was encoded. How did this strain become toxigenic?
Transduction (d) is the transfer of DNA mediated by bacteriophages. In generalized transduction, the phage virus can carry any segment of the donor chromosome; in specialized transduction, the phage carries only specific genes, generally those immediately adjacent to the site of prophage insertion.
Conjugation
Frameshift mutation
Homologous recombination
Transduction
General