Evaluation of transferability of R-plasmid in bacteriocin-producing donors to bacteriocin-resistant recipients

Bacteriocin-producing Escherichia coli (donors) rapidly kill conventional recipient E. coli DH5α in conjugation experiments. To evaluate plasmid transferability of bacteriocin-producing donors, we established 2 different bacteriocin-resistant mutants derived from E. coli DH5α and used them as recipients. When the bacteriocin-resistant mutants were used in conjugation experiments, the transconjugant recovery from 20 bacteriocin-producing donors increased from 5% (1/20) to 65% (13/20), and the transfer frequencies increased. These results showed that bacteriocins inhibited the transfer of the R-plasmid from bacteriocin-producing donors. Thus, application of bacteriocin-resistant recipients might aid the evaluation of the potential transferability of plasmids from bacteriocin-producing donors.