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Bacterial vertical gene transfer

Vertical gene transfer refers to the inheritance of the parental gene to the progeny. Prokaryotes, such as bacteria and archaea, reproduce asexually by budding or cell division to generate identical progeny/daughter cells.

The chromosome of the daughter cells is identical to the parent cells. In vertical gene transfer, genetic variation is made possible through mutation. Variation becomes vital to a population of bacteria when it was exposed to change, such as a new environment or competing microbes. The variation in the bacteria genome may lead to progeny that are more adaptable towards the changes, hence ensures the survivability of the bacteria species.

The genetic variation via mutation generally happens slowly compared to horizontal gene transfer.

Dark arrow from a yellow oval shape with blue circle inside, representing non-resistant bacteria, points toward five identical bacteria mixed with two purple bacteria with dark blue plasmids, and the image is called “Bacteria multiply. Few bacteria will mutate as they multiply.”. Another arrow from that mix points toward a similar image, but here all yellow bacteria cells are shrinked, and the image is named “Mutant Survive. In the presence of antibiotics, only resistant bacteria survives.”. Last arrow from the mutant image points toward 6 purple bacteria cells, and the image is called “Antibiotic resistant. The cycle will repeat upon the exposure of more or new antibiotics.”

Figure 1. Mutation in a population of non-resistant bacteria may lead to resistant bacteria progeny.

Referred from:

Article
Horizontal gene transfer