ost bacteria reproduce by asexual binary fission: each cell
increases in size and divides into two cells, with an orderly increase in structures and replication of DNA (Todar, 2005). A septum forms to divide the cell into two. The DNA is attached to the membrane where it is duplicated, and remains there while new cell membrane is synthesized between the two points. The generation time for bacteria growing in nature may be as short as 15 minutes, or as long as several days. Bacteria can exchange genetic material by undergoing conjugation, transduction or transformation. In conjugation, there is cell-to-cell contact and DNA crosses a sex pilus from the donor to the recipient cell. In transduction, a virus transfers the genes between mating bacteria. In transformation, DNA is acquired directly from the environment after being released from another cell. The transfer of DNA can be followed by genetic recombination, and this is how drug resistance is transferred between cells during DNA transfer on plasmids. This mechanism is the basis of genetic engin
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