In:
mBio, American Society for Microbiology, Vol. 3, No. 4 ( 2012-08-31)
Abstract:
Promiscuous plasmids play an important role in the spread of antibiotic resistance and many other traits between closely and distantly related bacteria. However, little is known about the dynamics by which these broad-host-range antibiotic resistance plasmids adapt to novel bacteria and thereby become more persistent, even in the absence of antibiotics. In this study, we show that after no more than 200 generations of growth in the presence of antibiotics, a plasmid that was initially poorly maintained in a novel bacterial host evolved to become drastically more persistent in the absence of antibiotics. In each of the evolving populations, an unexpectedly large number of bacterial variants arose with distinct mutations in the plasmid’s replication initiation protein. Our results suggest that clonal interference, characterized by competition between variant clones in a population, plays a major role in the evolution of the persistence of drug resistance.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2161-2129
,
2150-7511
DOI:
10.1128/mBio.00077-12
Language:
English
Publisher:
American Society for Microbiology
Publication Date:
2012
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2557172-2
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