Evolution of Plasmid Mobility: Origin and Fate of Conjugative and Nonconjugative Plasmids.

ABSTRACT: Conjugation drives the horizontal transfer of adaptive traits across prokaryotes. One-fourth of the plasmids encode the functions necessary to conjugate autonomously, the others being eventually mobilizable by conjugation. To understand the evolution of plasmid mobility, we studied plasmid size, gene repertoires, and conjugation-related genes. Plasmid gene repertoires were found to vary rapidly in relation to the evolutionary rate of relaxases, for example, most pairs of plasmids with 95% identical relaxases have fewer than 50% of homologs. Among 249 recent transitions of mobility type, we observed a clear excess of plasmids losing the capacity to conjugate. These transitions are associated with even greater changes in gene repertoires, possibly mediated by transposable elements, including

SUBMITTER: Coluzzi C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9185392 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature