So according to a PPT I'm reading, bacterial conjugation works by the two bacteria joining pili and exchanging plasmids. So how exactly do the plasmids get across the gap? If I understand this correctly, the pili are little hair-like things on the outside of the bacteria -- so unless the plasmids were actually able to somehow be pushed through the pili, there would be gap. Right?
The only other possibility I can think of would be that the membranes fused or something like that. But that comes with it's own whole set of problems.
How does this work?