Exogenote

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An exogenote is a DNA donor, usually occurs in mating of prokaryotic organisms.

An exogenote is genetic material that is released into the environment by prokaryotic cells, usually upon their lysis. This genetic material is then free to be taken up by other bacteria and used as a template for protein synthesis or broken down for its molecules to be used elsewhere in the cell. Taking up genetic material into the cell from the surrounding environment is a form of bacterial transformation.