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From: eddy@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Sean Eddy)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Life Classification ...further comments
Message-ID: <1211@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Date: Sat, 30-May-87 15:40:24 EDT
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Posted: Sat May 30 15:40:24 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 1-Jun-87 05:44:32 EDT
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In article <382@uhnix2.UUCP> bchso@uhnix2.UUCP (Dan Davison) writes:
>In article <1991@husc6.UUCP> gallagher@husc4.UUCP (paul gallagher) writes:
>>Prokaryotes exchange genetic information
>>with plasmids...
>
>And via viruses.  Bacillus sp. also pick up DNA directly from the environment,
>ie from those around them that have died and lysed the cell membrane.

Dan, is it true that only the Bacillus species can pick up
and incorporate DNA from the environment? I was under the possibly
naive impression that pretty much all the bacteria could do this
trick, called transformation. The principle of bacterial
transformation is the heart of genetic engineering in E. coli
(admittedly, coli transformation is artificially enhanced
in the laboratory),
as well as the crucial point in the classical experiments of
Avery, McCleod, and McCarty that indicated DNA is the genetic
material (incidentally, their experiments used Diplococcus).

I'll be interested to hear if my concept of transformation
is indeed overly naive.

- Sean Eddy
- Dept. of Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder; Boulder, CO 80309
- 
- "It's hard to argue with someone who knows what he's talking about."
-                - Craig Werner (MD/PhD '91)
- "Everything you know is wrong."
-                - Firesign Theatre