New insights into how bacteria take up DNA during transformation.

Haemophilus influenzae possesses an efficient natural transformation system. Under appropriate growth conditions, every cell in a culture acquires the competence to take up several molecules of DNA. Only donor DNAs from Haemophilus species are taken up; foreign DNAs are excluded. Specific recognition is achieved through the interaction of a receptor protein present on the recipient cell membrane with an 11 base pair sequence present at high frequency in the donor DNA.