Transduction (genetics)
Transduction is the process by which DNA is transferred from one bacterium to another by a virus. It also refers to the process whereby foreign DNA is introduced into another cell via a viral vector. Transduction does not require physical contact between the cell donating the DNA and the cell receiving the DNA (which occurs in conjugation), and it is DNAase resistant (transformation is susceptible to DNAase). Transduction is a common tool used by molecular biologists to stably introduce a foreign gene into a host cell's genome.
When bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) infect a bacterial cell, their normal mode of reproduction is to harness the replicational, transcriptional, and translation machinery of the host bacterial cell to make numerous virions, or complete viral particles, including the viral DNA or RNA and the protein coat.
Transduction is especially important because it explains one mechanism by which antibiotic drugs become ineffective due to the transfer of antibiotic-resistance genes between bacteria. In addition, hopes to create medical methods of genetic modification of diseases such as Duchenne/Becker Muscular Dystrophy are based upon these methodologies.
Read more about Transduction (genetics): Lytic and Lysogenic (temperate) Cycles, Transduction As A Method For Transferring Genetic Material, Medical Applications, RNA, DNA, More General Uses of The Term, Discovery