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Week 4: Why are so many bacteria resistant to antibiotics?

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This figure is a schematic representation of transduction. Bacterial cells of one species are represented as blue ovals. The bacterial DNA is represented as a blue circle. Bacteriophage DNA is represented in a black dotted line. Bacteria infected with bacteriophage have bacteriophage DNA incorporated into their DNA. When this DNA is excised from the bacterial genome if carries with it some bacterial DNA. This DNA is incorporated into new bacteriophage particles which are released and infect new bacteria of a different species (in green). The bacterial DNA from the original bacteria, in blue, is incorporated, together with the bacteriophage DNA (in red) into the genome of the newly infected bacteria (in green).