What is the advantage of genetic recombination as a mode of reproduction in bacteria?

less time finding other bacteria

higher rates of reproduction

more susceptibility to antibiotics

greater genetic variation

The correct answer for the question that is being presented above is this one: "greater genetic variation." The advantage of genetic recombination as a mode of reproduction in bacteria is that it has greater genetic variation. The greater its genetic variation, the greater advantage of genetic recombination.

Bacterial genetic recombination is characterized by DNA transfer from one organism called donor to another organism as the recipient and the result is the production of genetic recombinants, individuals. Those recombinant bacteria have a greater genetic variation because they carry, not only the genes they inherited from their parent cells but also the genes introduced to their genomes. There are three types of mechanisms that create genetic variations in bacteria (through recombination):

1. Transformation-that occurs when bacterium takes up a piece of DNA floating in its environment,

2. Transduction-occurs when DNA is accidentally moved from one bacterium to another by a virus (bacteriophage) and

3. Conjugation - when DNA is transferred from one bacteria to another through a tube between cells.

Those mechanisms of genetic recombination together with short generation time and random mutations allow bacteria to evolve very quickly and for example, create resistance to antibiotics.