Evolving Populations in Biofilms Contain More Persistent Plasmids.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial plasmids substantially contribute to the rapid spread of antibiotic resistance, which is a crisis in healthcare today. Coevolution of plasmids and their hosts promotes this spread of resistance by ameliorating the cost of plasmid carriage. However, our knowledge of plasmid-bacteria coevolution is solely based on studies done in well-mixed liquid cultures, even though biofilms represent the main way of bacterial life on Earth and are responsible for most infections. The spatial structure and the heterogeneity provided by biofilms are known to lead to increased genetic diversity as compared with well-mixed liquids. Therefore, we expect that growth in this complex environment could affect the evolutionary trajectories of plasmid-host dyads. We experimentally evolved Shewanella oneid

SUBMITTER: Stalder T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7253198 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature