Editing Mycobacterium smegmatis (section)

===Transformation===
Transformation is a process by which a bacterial cell takes up DNA that had been released by another cell into the surrounding medium, and then incorporates that DNA into its own genome by homologous recombination (see [[Transformation (genetics)]]).  Strains of ''M. smegmatis'' that have particularly efficient DNA repair machinery, as indicated by their greater resistance to the DNA damaging effects of agents such as UV and mitomycin C, proved to be the most capable of undergoing transformation.<ref name="pmid641008">{{cite journal | vauthors = Norgard MV, Imaeda T | title = Physiological factors involved in the transformation of Mycobacterium smegmatis | journal = Journal of Bacteriology | volume = 133 | issue = 3 | pages = 1254–62 | date = March 1978 | pmid = 641008 | pmc = 222159 | doi = 10.1128/jb.133.3.1254-1262.1978 }}</ref>  This suggests that transformation in ''M. smegmatis'' is a DNA repair process, presumably a recombinational repair process, as it is in other bacterial species.<ref name="pmid18295550">{{cite journal | vauthors = Michod RE, Bernstein H, Nedelcu AM | title = Adaptive value of sex in microbial pathogens | journal = Infection, Genetics and Evolution | volume = 8 | issue = 3 | pages = 267–85 | date = May 2008 | pmid = 18295550 | doi = 10.1016/j.meegid.2008.01.002 }}</ref>