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Related Concept Videos

Conjugation01:19

Conjugation

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Conjugation is a form of horizontal gene transfer that primarily occurs in bacteria and some archaea, promoting genetic diversity and adaptation. Bacteria can acquire resistance genes through conjugative plasmids, allowing them to survive antibiotic treatments that would otherwise be lethal. This process involves direct contact between cells through specialized structures such as the sex pilus and is mediated by conjugative plasmids, including the F (fertility) factor.Conjugation requires...
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Mechanism of Conjugation01:19

Mechanism of Conjugation

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Bacterial conjugation is a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer that enables the exchange of genetic material between bacterial cells through direct contact. This process is facilitated by a donor cell carrying a conjugative plasmid, which encodes genes necessary for pilus formation, DNA replication, and transfer. The conjugative plasmid plays a central role in initiating and executing the transfer of genetic material.The tra region of the conjugative plasmid encodes proteins responsible for...
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Plasmids01:28

Plasmids

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Plasmids are extrachromosomal DNA molecules found in bacteria, archaea, and some eukaryotic microbes like yeast. These small, circular DNA structures typically contain fewer than 30 genes, although some may exist linearly. Plasmids vary in their number within a cell, known as copy number. Single-copy plasmids are present in one copy per cell and multi-copy plasmids are present in multiple copies, reaching over 100 copies per cell.Plasmids usually replicate independently of the chromosomal DNA...
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Conservative Site-specific Recombination and Phase Variation02:53

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Because the DNA segments are cut and reorganized in a direction-specific manner, site-specific recombination has emerged as an efficient genetic engineering technique. Flippase and Cyclization recombinases or Flp and Cre, respectively, are two members of the tyrosine recombinase family derived from bacteriophages, that are used to mediate site-specific DNA insertions, deletions, and targeted expression of proteins in mammalian cell lines.
The recognition sites for Cre recombinase called LoxP...
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Antibiotic Selection00:57

Antibiotic Selection

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Transduction01:16

Transduction

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Among the three main modes of HGT—transformation, conjugation, and transduction—transduction is unique in that it is mediated by bacteriophages, or bacterial viruses.Transduction occurs in two ways. Generalized transduction occurs during the lytic cycle of a bacteriophage infection. In this process, bacteriophages infect bacterial cells, replicate within them, and ultimately cause cell lysis, releasing newly assembled virions. Occasionally, random fragments of the bacterial genome...
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Limits to evolutionary rescue by conjugative plasmids.

Félix Geoffroy1, Hildegard Uecker1

  • 1Research group Stochastic Evolutionary Dynamics, Department of Evolutionary Theory, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany.

Theoretical Population Biology
|November 3, 2023
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Conjugative plasmids aid bacterial adaptation, but competition with resident plasmids can hinder their spread. High transfer rates may not always benefit evolutionary rescue due to plasmid competition.

Keywords:
Evolutionary rescueconjugative plasmidshorizontal gene transfer

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Plasmids confer adaptive traits, enhancing bacterial survival under stress.
  • Conjugative plasmids facilitate horizontal gene transfer, spreading beneficial genes.
  • Incompatible resident plasmids can prevent successful conjugative plasmid transfer, limiting spread.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of conjugation rates on evolutionary rescue.
  • To analyze the interplay between horizontal gene transfer, plasmid competition, and plasmid costs.
  • To determine if higher conjugation rates universally benefit evolutionary rescue.

Main Methods:

  • Systematic analysis of three mathematical models with increasing complexity.
  • Modeling horizontal gene transfer dynamics.
  • Incorporating plasmid competition and fitness costs.

Main Results:

  • The net effect of increasing horizontal gene transfer can be positive or negative.
  • High conjugation rates can increase both the spread of beneficial plasmids and the prevalence of competing resident plasmids.
  • The optimal plasmid transfer rate is context-dependent and not necessarily the maximum rate.

Conclusions:

  • Plasmid competition significantly influences the effectiveness of evolutionary rescue.
  • Understanding the balance between gene transfer rates and plasmid competition is crucial for predicting bacterial adaptation.
  • The observed diversity of plasmid transfer rates in nature may reflect an optimization process balancing benefits and costs.