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John Maynard Smith - How bacteria transfer genetic material (72/102)

1,022 views · Published 8 March 2017 · 1:04 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Science & Technology

To hear more of John Maynard Smith’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b0Nm_L3TKg&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzJSvAc4MBuUP_GrjO1lLHp

The late British biologist John Maynard Smith (1920-2004) is famous for applying game theory to the study of natural selection. In 1973 Maynard Smith formalised a central concept in game theory called the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS). His ideas, presented in books such as 'Evolution and the Theory of Games', were enormously influential and led to a more rigorous scientific analysis and understanding of interactions between living things. [Listener: Richard Dawkins; date recorded: 1997]

TRANSCRIPT: Bacterial cells don't fuse, I mean, they don't go into sex as we do, but there are a variety of ways in which genetic material from one bacterium can be transferred to another. Either quite small pieces, of a few hundreds or a few thousand nucleotides, up to a whole group of genes going across. And some of these processes are rather common, some only happen rather rarely. But the general notion that genes are moving about in bacteria, even across quite wide taxonomic boundaries, they don't even have to be closely related bacteria for this to happen always. The bacteria... I picture another analogy, I picture a bacterium like E. coli, a little like a football team, every now and then they need a new goalkeeper or a new striker or something, and they can sort of buy one in by these various processes of horizontal transfer.

[RD] Not even from other E. coli, but from quite different bacteria?

Maybe from other E. coli, but sometimes from quite different bacteria.

John Maynard Smith - How bacteria transfer genetic material (72/102)

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