Open AccessPlasmids Spread Very Fast in Heterogeneous Bacterial Communities
Author(s) -
Francisco Dionísio,
Ivan Matić,
Miroslav Radman,
Olı́via Roos Rodrigues,
François Taddéi
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.792
H-Index - 246
eISSN - 1943-2631
pISSN - 0016-6731
DOI - 10.1093/genetics/162.4.1525
Subject(s) - plasmid , biology , genetics , bacteria , bacterial conjugation , horizontal gene transfer , pilus , gene , virulence , microbiology and biotechnology , bacterial genetics , antibiotic resistance , escherichia coli , genome
Conjugative plasmids can mediate gene transfer between bacterial taxa in diverse environments. The ability to donate the F-type conjugative plasmid R1 greatly varies among enteric bacteria due to the interaction of the system that represses sex-pili formations (products of finOP) of plasmids already harbored by a bacterial strain with those of the R1 plasmid. The presence of efficient donors in heterogeneous bacterial populations can accelerate plasmid transfer and can spread by several orders of magnitude. Such donors allow millions of other bacteria to acquire the plasmid in a matter of days whereas, in the absence of such strains, plasmid dissemination would take years. This "amplification effect" could have an impact on the evolution of bacterial pathogens that exist in heterogeneous bacterial communities because conjugative plasmids can carry virulence or antibiotic-resistance genes.