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Science 8 August 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5634, pp. 802 - 803
DOI: 10.1126/science.1085154
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Viewpoint

Bacterial Sex: Playing Voyeurs 50 Years Later

Masamichi Kohiyama,1 Sota Hiraga,2 Ivan Matic,3* Miroslav Radman3

The concept of chromosomes with a ring structure was born during the early studies of bacterial sexuality, and the discovery of fertility factors— episomes or plasmids—provided much later the key tools for gene cloning and biotechnology. But the plasmid-mediated transfer of antibiotic and other resistances, as well as pathogenicity, has served bacteria well in their own adaptive evolution.

1 Institut Jacques Monod, Université Paris 6–7, 2 place Jussieu, 75251 Paris Cedex 05, France.
2 Department of Radiation Genetics, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Konoe, Yoshida, Sakyo, Kyoto 606–8501, Japan.
3 INSERM U571, Faculté de Médecine Necker-Enfants Malades, Université Paris V, 156 rue Vaugirard, 75730 Paris Cedex 15, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: radman{at}necker.fr

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Direct Visualization of Horizontal Gene Transfer.
A. Babic, A. B. Lindner, M. Vulic, E. J. Stewart, and M. Radman (2008)
Science 319, 1533-1536
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