Fusion of microbial protoplasts: problems and perspectives.

Polyethylene glycol-(PEG)-induced fusion of both procaryotic and eucaryotic microorganisms seems to be a good technique for constructing hybrid microorganisms. Though the data published show that the fusion technique can be successfully applied for genetic analysis even in systems having no natural way to do it, further studies are needed to find, for each system, the conditions where it works in predictable ways.