Final answer:
Interrupted mating is the technique used by Wollman and Jacob which involves using a blender to separate bacterial cells during conjugation without killing them. This is crucial for understanding the genetics behind the transfer of genetic material during bacterial conjugation.
Step-by-step explanation:
Wollman and Jacob used a blender to separate bacterial cells in the act of conjugation without killing the cells. Their technique is called interrupted mating.
The bacterial process of conjugation involves a donor cell, which uses a structure called an F pilus, or sex pilus, to attach to a recipient cell. The membranes of the two cells merge, allowing genetic material, typically in the form of a plasmid, to move from the donor to the recipient cell.
This process is pivotal for genetic diversity in bacteria and is utilized in biotechnological applications such as molecular cloning using F plasmids. These plasmids encode the F pilus and are essential for the conjugation process.