A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism.

It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a polypeptide or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains. Genes hold the information to build and maintain an organism's cells and pass genetic traits to offspring. All organisms have many genes corresponding to various biological traits, some of which are immediately visible, such as eye color or number of limbs, and some of which are not, such as blood type or increased risk for specific diseases, or the thousands of basic biochemical processes that comprise life.
HISTORY INHERITENCE

The notion of a gene[10] is evolving with the science of genetics, which began when Gregor Mendel noticed that biological variations are inherited from parent organisms as specific, discrete traits. The biological entity responsible for defining traits was later termed a gene, but the biological basis for inheritance remained unknown until DNA was identified as the genetic material in the 1940s. Prior to Mendel's work, the dominant theory of heredity was one of blending inheritance, which proposes that the traits of the parents blend or mix in a smooth, continuous gradient in the offspring. Although Mendel's work was largely unrecognized after its first publication in 1866, it was rediscovered in 1900 by three European scientists, Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns, and Erich von Tschermak, who had reached similar conclusions from their own research. However, these scientists were not yet aware of the identity of the 'discrete units' on which genetic material resides.

Recombination

Genetic recombination refers to the exchange between two DNA molecules. o It results in new combinations of genes on the chromosome. You are probably most familiar with the recombination event known as crossing over. o In crossing over, two homologous chromosomes (chromosomes that contain the same sequence of genes but can have different alleles) break at corresponding points, switch fragments and rejoin. o The result is two recombinant chromosomes. In bacteria, crossing over involves a chromosome segment entering the cell and aligning with its homologous segment on the bacterial chromosome. The two break at corresponding point, switch fragments and rejoin. The result, as before, is two recombinant chromosomes and the bacteria can be called a recombinant cell. The recombinant pieces left outside the chromosome will eventually be degraded or lost in cell division. But one question still remains...how did the chromosome segment get in to the cell? The answer is Genetic Transfer!

Genetic Transfer

Genetic transfer is the mechanism by which DNA is transferred from a donar to a recipient. Once donar DNA is inside the recipient, crossing over can occur. o The result is a recombinant cell that has a genome different from either the donar or the recipient. In bacteria genetic transfer can happen three ways: 1. Transformation 2. Transduction 3. Conjugation

Remember that a recombination event must occur after transfer in order that the

Transduction

Another method of genetic transfer and recombination is transduction. This method involves the transfer of DNA from one bacterium to another with the use of a bacteriophage (phage). o A phage is a virus that infects bacteria. o The phage T4 and the phage lambda, for example, both infect E. coli.

Because the phage reproductive system is important to understanding transduction, we will briefly review phage lifecycle. Phages are obligatory intracellular parasites and must invade a host cell in order to reproduce. o T4 multiplies by the lytic cycle which kills the host and lamba multiplies by the lysogenic cycle which does not cause the death of the host cell. o In lysogeny, the phage DNA remains latent in the host until it breaks out in a lytic cycle. General Steps Of The Lytic Cycle: 1. Attachment of T4 to receptors on E. coli cell wall. 2. Penetration of the cell wall by tail core. Inject DNA into host. 3. E. coli DNA is hydrolyzed. Phage DNA directs biosynthesis of viral parts using the host cell's machinery. 4. The phages mature as the parts are assembled. 5. Lyses of E. coli and release of the new phages. change in the genome be heritable(passed on to the next generation).