How does bacteria reproduce sexually?

Bacteria do not REPRODUCE sexually, they reproduce asexually by splitting (referred to as binary fission). The outcome of asexual reproduce is essentially the same as cloning: you get a new individual and that individual is genetically the same as the "parent" (has the exact same genes). HOWEVER, bacteria can have sex. Remember that sex is essentially the mixing and exchange of genes and you don't need to reproduce to have sex. This may sound weird to you since when humans or any animal reproduce, they typically have sex. Bacteria have sex via conjugation: two bacterial cells get together and form a "mating bridge", they exchange DNA (or some of their genes) across the mating bridge, and then come apart. When bacteria have sex, there is an exchange of DNA, but no new cells are made. The outcome of bacterial sex (or conjugation) is that each cell has a different genetic make-up and so the two bacteria are now very different before they had sex, yet there are no new cells made. In contrast, when animals have sex (providing there are no preventative measures taken), they produce a new organism in the form of a baby (or babies) and this baby is not the same as the parent (has a different genetic make-up with a mixture of mom's and dad's genes).

How does bacteria reproduce sexually?
I'm not 100% positive but don't they reproduce asexually?(ex wives not withstanding)
Reply:it doesnt it produces assexually by splitting itself
Reply:Asexually is through binary fission. "Sexually" is through conjugation using a sex pilus. In this way, plasmids can be transferred and horizontal gene transfer occurs. It's not really reproducing sexually, but this is how genetic exchange between prokaryotes occurs. So, conjugation is the closest thing to sex for bacteria. As a result, virulence, resistance, and metabolism may be changed when the process is completed.
Reply:Bacteria don't reproduce sexually.

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