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Localized sex in bacteria

Nature volume 349, pages 29–31 (1991)Cite this article

Abstract

Electrophoretic studies suggest that bacterial populations consist of a number of independent clones and that genetic recombination is rare in nature. But DNA sequencing reveals that individual bacterial genes have a mosaic structure that could have arisen only by recombination. How can these observations be reconciled and what is their relevance to prokaryotic evolution?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK

    John Maynard Smith, Christopher G. Dowson & Brian G. Spratt

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  1. John Maynard Smith
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  2. Christopher G. Dowson
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  3. Brian G. Spratt
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Smith, J., Dowson, C. & Spratt, B. Localized sex in bacteria. Nature 349, 29–31 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/349029a0

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