E. Coli Poetry

Two cells of E. coli were wandering slowly
Down the gastrointestinal tract.
An F+ was he, an F- was she,
And their membranes were bound to attract.

Now the dainty F- was born in a sinus
Where her members did seldom trespass,
But the brawnt F+ was spawned in some pus,
And produced both acid and gas.

A kiss he had stolen, down deep in the colon;
"Don't touch me", she said, "or I'll scream!
I have no protection, and an F+ infection
Would spoil my maidenly dream."

So the poor lonely fella withdrew his flagella
And worshipped her from afar;
"At least", he said, "wait, till I can mutate
And come back an HFR."

(What is an HFR? Occasionally, the F factor integrates into a random position in the bacterial chromosome. When this happens, the bacterial cell is called Hfr instead of F+. Hfr bacteria are still able to initiate conjugation with F- cells, but the outcome is completely different from conjugation involving F+ bacteria.)