Bacterial conjugation: an analysis of mixed recombinant clones

A fraction of recombinant colonies resulting from conjugation is heterogenetic for unselected markers. Constitutivity for alkaline phosphatase synthesis (phoR) is studied as the unselected marker. The frequency of phoR heterogeneity depends on the genetic distance between phoR and the selected marker. Various models are considered which explain the formation of heterogenetic colonies (mixed clones), and experiments are described which test these models. It is concluded that the Hfr fragment can replicate and participate more than once in recombination thus yielding heterogenetic colonies.