A nonspore-forming, gram-positive bacillus was isolated from a throat specimen from a primary school-aged child who had not been vaccinated with the DTaP vaccine. The strain isolated carried a bacteriophage on which the gene for toxin was encoded. How did this strain become toxigenic?
High-Yield Explanation
Transduction (d) is the transfer of DNA mediated by bacteriophages. In generalized transduction, the phage virus can carry any segment of the donor chromosome; in specialized transduction, the phage carries only specific genes, generally those immediately adjacent to the site of prophage insertion.