conjugation

[cloudnine]

can conjugation take place if two different bacteria are cultured in a same plate.
if so, what might happen to their plasmids?

[canalon]

can conjugation take place if two different bacteria are cultured in a same plate.
if so, what might happen to their plasmids?

Theoritically yes.
Now, that may not be the best way to observe conjugation. When I did some I was making them happen on filter by mixing two rather dense solution of bacteria.

Any way the plasmid in strain A would end up in strain B provided strain B do not already contain the same plasmid or on plasmid of the same incompatibility group. The frequence of this event is highly variable and depend on experimental conditions and on the strains (some are better donor or acceptor than others). Of course you better have a non plasmid dependant way to select strain B from A if you want to be able to select for the conjugants.

HTH

Patrick