Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Multicopy plasmid instability: the dimer catastrophe hypothesis

D K Summers1, C W Beton, H L Withers

  • 1Cavendish Physics Laboratory, Cambridge, UK.

Molecular Microbiology
|June 1, 1993
PubMed
Summary

Plasmid dimers, not evenly distributed, cause instability by concentrating in specific cells. This non-uniform distribution, driven by faster dimer replication, leads to frequent plasmid-free daughter cells.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Multicopy plasmid stability: revisiting the dimer catastrophe.

Journal of theoretical biology·2011
Same author

Indole transport across Escherichia coli membranes.

Journal of bacteriology·2011
Same author

The role of FIS in the Rcd checkpoint and stable maintenance of plasmid ColE1.

Microbiology (Reading, England)·2009
Same author

Recombinant protein secretion in Escherichia coli.

Biotechnology advances·2005
Same author

Studies of single-chain antibody expression in quiescent Escherichia coli.

Applied and environmental microbiology·2004
Same author

Monomer-dimer control of the ColE1 P(cer) promoter.

Microbiology (Reading, England)·2001

Area of Science:

  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics
  • Biotechnology

Background:

  • Multimer formation is a known cause of plasmid instability, reducing plasmid copy number.
  • Even low levels of plasmid dimers can lead to severe instability, which is difficult to explain with even distribution models.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the distribution of plasmid dimers within cell populations.
  • To understand the mechanism by which plasmid dimers cause segregational instability.
  • To model the proliferation and equilibrium of plasmid dimers.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of plasmid dimer distribution in recombination-proficient strains.
  • Quantification of dimer and monomer concentrations in cell populations.
  • Computer simulation of dimer proliferation and multimerization dynamics.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Plasmid dimer distribution is heterogeneous, confined to a small subpopulation of cells.
  • Dimers replicate at twice the rate of monomers, leading to their concentration.
  • Dimer-containing cells grow slower, preventing runaway multimerization.

Conclusions:

  • Heterogeneous dimer distribution explains severe instability from low dimer levels.
  • Plasmid dimers arise from homologous recombination and concentrate in specific cells, leading to plasmid-free daughters.
  • Equilibrium dimer concentration depends on recombination rates, not the rate of dimer-to-monomer conversion.