Mycoplasmas under experimental antimicrobial selection: The unpredicted contribution of horizontal chromosomal transfer.

ABSTRACT: Horizontal Gene Transfer was long thought to be marginal in Mycoplasma a large group of wall-less bacteria often portrayed as minimal cells because of their reduced genomes (ca. 0.5 to 2.0 Mb) and their limited metabolic pathways. This view was recently challenged by the discovery of conjugative exchanges of large chromosomal fragments that equally affected all parts of the chromosome via an unconventional mechanism, so that the whole mycoplasma genome is potentially mobile. By combining next generation sequencing to classical mating and evolutionary experiments, the current study further explored the contribution and impact of this phenomenon on mycoplasma evolution and adaptation using the fluoroquinolone enrofloxacin (Enro), for selective pressure and the ruminant pathogen Mycoplasma ag

SUBMITTER: Faucher M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6358093 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature