transduce

To convert energy from one form to another.

Five different types of sensory receptors are classified according to the energy they transduce in creating the different senses. These include mechanoreceptors, chemoreceptors, photoreceptors, thermoreceptors, and electroreceptors.

To transfer or copy genetic material from one cell or virus into another.

After the transducing phage DNA is introduced into the recipient cell genome, the cell acquires, in addition to phage genes, genetic information that originated from the phage's previous host. Thus, in specialized transduction, the phage serves as a vector for transferring genes from one cell to another; only cellular genes that are close to the viral genome integration site are transducible by this mechanism.

To transfer or convert information from one form or medium to another.

Much as computers must transduce input information, the nervous system must transduce sensory information before it can be analyzed internally.

Information is also collected by an animal’s nervous system as it lives its life. When the ear transduces sound into neural firings, the two physical processes—vibrating air and diffusing ions—could not be more different. But thanks to the correlation between them, the pattern of neural activity in the animal’s brain carries information about the sound in the world. From there the information can switch from electrical to chemical and back as it crosses the synapses connecting one neuron to the next; through all these physical transformations, the information is preserved.