* This Article grew out of discussions held by the Research Group (formerly Task Force) on Death and Dying of the Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences, a nonprofit organization engaged in interdisciplinary analysis of the issues generated by biomedical advances. The Research Group has been investigating various practical and philosophical problems in the "meaning" of death and the care of dying patients.
The segregation of a bacterial plasmid, the sex factor F′, has been investigated in a cell-division mutant of
Escherichia coli
which produces small anucleate cells (minicells). Significant amounts of isotopically labeled DNA segregate into minicells dependent upon the presence of F′. Minicells containing F′Gal or F′(λ) are shown to donate the plasmid in conjugation. These results demonstrate that the sex factor may be dissociated from the bacterial chromosome and that this separation does not prevent its subsequent transfer.
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