[The role of surface structures of recipient cells in bacterial conjugation].
Previously, while studying conjugation process in bacteria, the main attention was given to donors of plasmids. The aim of this review is to show that recipient cells indeed play an important role in this process too. The main attention is given to the structure of recipient cell walls, which is necessary for the recognition of donor cell pili and the establishment of the contact between the cells, i. e. to the first steps of conjugation between gram-negative microorganisms. The evidence concerning the influence of recipient cell walls defects on transmission of some plasmids is presented. The significant role of defects in lipopolysaccharide structure and of the intrinsic features of protein components of the outer membrane is considered. To the author's mind, the diversity in the cell wall structure creates the "outer barriers" for the plasmid exchange between different bacteria. Like the "inner barriers" (restriction, transcription, mistakes, plasmid incompatibility, etc) these "outer barriers" seem to be crucial for genetic isolation of bacterial species. Postulating this process, the author puts forward the idea of applicability of the conception of the biological species to prokaryotes.
D001419:Bacteria / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000032:analysis*; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000032:analysis
D008070:Lipopolysaccharides
Rol' poverkhnostnykh struktur kletok-retsipientov pri kon''iugatsii bakteriĭ.