Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T01:48:55.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The kinetics of transfer of nonconjugative plasmids by mobilizing conjugative factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

Bruce R. Levin  and
Virginia A. Rice
Bruce R. Levin
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003
Virginia A. Rice
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A mathematical model for the kinetics of transfer of non-selftransmissible (nonconjugative) plasmids by mobilizing conjugative factors is presented and methods to estimate its parameters described. Using batch and chemostat cultures of Escherichia coli K-12 with the nonconjugative plasmid pCR1 and an F′ mobilizing factor, the parameters of this model were estimated. The observed changes in concentrations of the different parental and transconjugant cell types and the changes in these concentrations anticipated from the model are presented for two different ‘mating’ combinations in both exponentially growing and equilibrium chemostat populations of E. coli. The results of these experiments are interpreted to suggest that for bacterial populations dividing at a constant rate in liquid culture, the kinetics of mobilization transfer of nonconjugative plasmids can be reasonably well described by a simple set of mass action differential equations. These results also suggest that the carriage of the nonconjugative plasmid pCR1 has little, if any, effect on the capacity of a host bacterium to donate or receive conjugative F′ plasmids.

Type
Research Article
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , June 1980 , pp. 241 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

References

REFERENCES

Achtman, M., Willetts, N. & Clark, A. J. (1971). Beginning a genetic analysis of conjugational transfer determined by the F-factor in Escherichia coli by isolation and characterization of transfer-deficient mutants. Journal of Bacteriology 106, 529–538.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Achtman, M. (1975). Mating aggregates in Escherichia coli conjugation. Journal of Bacteriology 123, 505–515.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Achtman, M. & Helmuth, R. (1975). The F factor carries an operon of more than 5 × 106 daltons coding for deoxyribonucleic acid transfer and surface exclusion. In Microbiology – 1974, (ed. D. Schlessinger), pp. 95–103.Google Scholar
Achtman, M., Kennedy, N. & Skurray, R. (1977). Cell–cell interactions in conjugating Escherichia coli: Role of tra T protein in surface exclusion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, U.S.A. 74, 5104–5108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chao, L., Levin, B. R. & Stewart, F.M. (1977). A complex comimmity in a simple habitat: An experimental study with bacteria and phage. Ecology 58, 369–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohn, S. N. & Chang, A. Y. C. (1973). Recircularization and autonomous replication of a sheared R-factor DNA segment in Escherichiacoli transformants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, U.S.A. 70, 1293–1297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Covy, D., Richardson, D. & Carbon, S. C. (1976). A method for the deletion of restriction sites in bacterial plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid. Molecular and General Genetics 145, 155–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crow, J. F. & Kimura, M. (1970). An Introduction to the Theory of Population Genetics. New York: Harper Row.Google Scholar
Cullum, J., Collins, J. F. & Broda, P. (1978). Factors affecting the kinetics of progeny formation with F lac in Escherichia coli K-12. Plasmid 1, 536–544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtiss, R. III., Caro, L. G., Allison, D. P. & Stallions, D. R. (1969). Early stages of conjugation in E. coli. Journal of Bacteriology 100, 1091–1104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtiss, R. III., & Fenwick, R. Jr. (1975). Mechanism of conjugal plasmid transfer. In Microbiology – 1974, (ed. D. Schlessinger), pp. 156–165.Google Scholar
Falkow, S. (1975). Infectious Multiple Drug Resistance. London: Pion. 300 pp.Google Scholar
Levin, B. R. (1978). Assessing the likelihood of contaminating natural populations of bacteria with chimeric plasmids. Journal of Infectious Diseases 137, 691–693.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levin, B. R. & Stewart, F. M. (1977). Probability of establishing chimeric plasmids in natural populations of bacteria. Science 196, 218–220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levin, B. R., Stewart, F. M. & Rice, V. A. (1979). The kinetics of conjugative plasmid transmission: fit of a simple mass action model. Plasmid 2, 247–260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levin, B. R. & Stewart, F. M. (1980). The population biology of bacterial plasmids: A priori conditions for the existence of mobilizable nonconjugative factors. Genetics (In the Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levins, R. (1966). Strategy of model building in population biology. American Scientist 54, 421–431.Google Scholar
Meynell, G. G. (1973). Bacterial Plasmids. M.I.T. 164 pp. (Cambridge University Press.)Google Scholar
Miller, J. H. (1972). Experiments in Molecular Genetics. 466 pp. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.Google Scholar
Noviek, R. P., Clowes, R. C., Cohn, S. N., Curtiss, R. C. III., Datta, N. & Falkow, S. (1976). Uniform nomenclature for bacterial plasmids: a proposal. Bacteriological Reviews 40, 168–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, D. M., Ozeki, H. & Stocker, B. A. D. (1963). Transfer of ColE1 and ColE2 during high-frequency transmission of ColI in Salmonella typhimurium. Journal of General Microbiology 33, 231–242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stewart, F. M. & Levin, B. R. (1977). The population biology of bacterial plasmids: A priori conditions for the existence of conjugationally transmitted factors. Genetics 87, 209–228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed