Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution, from populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements in microbes. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating genetic elements that underlie much of the evolutionary flexibility of bacteria. Evolving plasmids face selective pressures on their hosts, but also compete within the cell for replication, making them an ideal system for studying the joint dynamics of multilevel selection. While theory indicates that within-cell selection should matter for plasmid evolution, experimental measurement of within-cell plasmid fitness and its consequences has remained elusive. Here we measure the within-cell fitness of competing plasmids and characterize drift and selective dynamics. We achieve this by

SUBMITTER: Rossine F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11870584 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature