Hurdles to horizontal gene transfer: species-specific effects of synonymous variation and plasmid copy number determine antibiotic resistance phenotype.

ABSTRACT: Could codon composition condition the immediate success and the orientation of horizontal gene transfer? Horizontal gene transfer represents a change in the genome of expression of the transferred gene, and experimental evidence has accumulated indicating that the codon composition of a sequence is an important determinant of its compatibility with the translation machinery of the genome in which it is expressed. This suggests that codon composition influences the phenotype and the fitness conferred by a transferred gene and thus the immediate success of the transfer. To directly test this hypothesis, we characterized the resistance conferred by synonymous variants of a gentamicin resistance gene in three bacterial species: Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baylyi and Pseudo

SUBMITTER: Finnegan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12811044 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature