Discovering conjugation in bacteria

Do bacteria possess any processes similar to sexual reproduction and recombination? The question was answered in 1946 by the elegantly simple experimental work of Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum, who studied two strains ofEscherichia coli with different nutritional requirements. Strain A would grow on a minimal medium only if the medium were supplemented with methionine and biotin; strain B would grow on a minimal medium only if it were supplemented with threonine, leucine, and thiamine. Thus, we can designate strain A as met− bio− thr+ leu+ thi+ and strain B as met+bio+…