How do bacteria conjugate?

Some sources say that during conjugation the doner bacterium uses "sex pili" to grasp onto the recipient bacterium, and then a "conjugation tube" is formed through which the strand of DNA is transferred from the doner to the recipient (http://www.biostudio.com/d_%20Bacterial%... However other sources say that the doner attaches to the recipient by its sex pilus, and the DNA is transferred through the sex pilus(http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/anima... Thus the latter understanding of bacterial conjugation says that the sex pilus IS the conjugation tube. Which of these is correct?

How do bacteria conjugate?
The good thing to remember is that the F factor allows conjucation. The F factor can be found on a plasmid or the chromosome of a bacterium.





The F factor codes for the pili that allows conjugation.





The F pilus enables an F carrying bacterium to contact an F negative bacterium and to initiate conjugation.





The F pilus does not provide the means of transport for DNA thought. It is used for recognition.





There are a series of Tra genes that actually seem to allow the transfer of DNA.





If that gives you an answer I would take it as good. This is still an area of active research. There is much more in the source I used about specific genes but they do seem to get a little iffy about stating exact actions.