General bacterial genetics.
I shall, in general, follow the lead of many professionals in the field by interpreting "bacteria" to mean Escherichia coli K-12 and its close relatives.
Abstract
So many excellent and comprehensive reviews of various aspects of bac terial genetics have been published recently (for a sample, see references 120) that I have turned the pages of the literature feeling like a gypsy staring into a cup and trying to extract from the exhausted leaves at the bottom some remnant of significance. It is tempting, under the circumstances, to exercise the usual gypsy prerogatives and to lean heavily on speculation and wishful thinking-and only lightly on facts-in order to provide the cus tomer with the revelations that he has paid for. I have tried to overcome that temptation. I should point out at the beginning that my own research does not deal with bacterial genetics; so, again like the gypsy, I find that the present ob ject of my attention is not exactly my cup of tea. For some years, however, I have been a fascinated spectator to the events in bacterial genetics and, in hopes that a spectator's comments might be useful to the participants, I have undertaken this task. After I had agreed to write this review, Curtiss' remarkable review of bacterial conjugation was published (1). I shall simply assume that the reader is already familiar with that review. (If not, he should at once set this aside and lay his hands on the nearest copy of Curtiss.) This assumption relieves me of the obligation to discuss "general bacterial genetics" and affords me the opportunity to deal with "special topics in general bacterial genetics." I shall, in general, follow the lead of many professionals in the field by interpreting "bacteria" to mean Escherichia coli K-12 and its close relatives.