Free DNA
Dead cells release fragments. A competent neighbor may take some in — transformation in the textbook name.
Biology here is a map of vehicles. A cell may take up loose DNA, dock with another cell, or receive a phage that packed the wrong genome.
Success still needs the new DNA to replicate or integrate. Most stray fragments fail.
Parts
Pilus contact
Some plasmids encode a mating connection. DNA can copy into a recipient — conjugation in outline.
Phage passengers
A virus of bacteria can package host DNA by mistake and deliver it next door — transduction.
Recombination
Incoming DNA must find a way to stay: a plasmid origin or a homologous join.
Restriction and CRISPR
Immune systems of bacteria cut unfamiliar DNA. They shape which traffic succeeds.
Selection after arrival
Antibiotics or metals can make a newly arrived cassette the only surviving story.
Life cycle
1Contact or release
DNA becomes available through lysis, mating or phage burst.
2Uptake or injection
A recipient cell acquires a fragment or a plasmid copy.
3Establishment
The DNA replicates or inserts. Restriction may abort the visit.
4Further traffic
A successful plasmid can leave again for a new host species.
Nothing below is a method.
Keep exploring
More in Change & defence
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Familiarity 85Vaccines and immunity
Antibodies, memory cells and community arithmetic — conceptual, not a prescription and not an anti-vaccine tract.
Familiarity 94Biofilms
Surface cities of microbes — plaque and catheters explain persistence, without a grow-your-own kit.
Familiarity 38Hygiene and balance
Clean water saves lives; missing old microbial partners is a separate, still-debated immune story.
Familiarity 70