91Ó°ÊÓ

Reproductive isolation is an evolutionary mechanism that prevents members of different species from producing offspring together. This concept mainly applies to sexually reproducing organisms, where inherent barriers can include physical incompatibilities, behavioral differences, or time of day when they reproduce.

Bacteria perform asexual reproduction, also known as 'binary fission', where a single organism duplicates its DNA and then divides into two equal parts. Since bacteria reproduce asexually, they do not need a mate to reproduce. Therefore, the classical idea of reproductive isolation does not hold true for bacteria.

Bacteria are typically classified based on phenotypic or genotypic characteristics rather than reproductive isolation. Phenotypic characteristics can include shape, structure, and metabolic activities, while genotypic characteristics are based upon genetic makeup. It is often the case that bacteria with similar phenotypic characteristics may have different genotypic characteristics and vice versa. Therefore, the classification of bacteria into separate species is essentially based upon a combination of both phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. The geneticist would use DNA sequences, such as the genes for ribosomal RNA, enzyme coding genes, and other noncoding regions to classify bacteria into different species.