Intragenomic conflicts with plasmids and chromosomal mobile genetic elements drive the evolution of natural transformation within species.

ABSTRACT: Natural transformation is the only mechanism of genetic exchange controlled by the recipient bacteria. We quantified its rates in 786 clinical strains of the human pathogens Legionella pneumophila (Lp) and 496 clinical and environmental strains of Acinetobacter baumannii (Ab). The analysis of transformation rates in the light of phylogeny revealed they evolve by a mixture of frequent small changes and a few large quick jumps across 6 orders of magnitude. In standard conditions close to half of the strains of Lp and a more than a third in Ab are below the detection limit and thus presumably non-transformable. Ab environmental strains tend to have higher transformation rates than the clinical ones. Transitions to non-transformability were frequent and usually recent, suggesting that they are

SUBMITTER: Mazzamurro F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11472951 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature