Gene transfer inAcinetobacter calcoaceticusNCIB8250

Abstract

Filter matings of mutant strains of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus NCIB8250 showed that catabolic and auxotrophic markers were transferred in the absence of a conjugative plasmid. There were no specific ‘donor’ or ‘recipient’ strains. Deoxyribonuclease had no effect on the mating system. Some crosses appeared to be highly polarized towards certain parental strains whilst others showed a two‐way transfer of genetic markers. There was a high frequency of transfer of the ability to utilize L(+)‐mandelate from a mutant of A. calcoaceticus NCIB8250 to certain strains of a second wild‐type, EBF65/65, but there was no evidence that the recombinants had acquired another plasmid. This process, whose mechanism is not clear, has some potential in the construction of novel strains but is not likely to be generally useful for mapping purposes and may even prove to be a hazard in the interpretation of results from other genetic techniques.

Genetic system inPseudomonas alcaligenesNCIB 9867

“…alcaligenes NCIB 9867 characterized in this study is rather unique when compared to the genetic systems present in other Pseudomonas species such as P. aeruginosa, P. putida and P. stutzeri [12]. The 10-100-fold increased frequency of gene transfer upon filter mating between whole cells displayed some similarities to the genetic systems reported for Acinetobacter calcoaceticus NCIB 8250 [13], Haemophilus influenzae [14] and Neisseria gonorrhoeae [15].…”

Role of natural transformation in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

“…Using our data, it is however difficult to conclude if those lower plasmid uptake frequencies were solely due to inherent difficulties in plasmid reconstitution or an effect of the labtype. In other species, the frequency of plasmid uptake is in the range of chromosome‐encoded genes (e.g., as for in B. subtilis and A. calcoaceticus , Figure 5; Graham & Istock, 1978; Rochelle et al, 1988; Vakeria et al, 1985; Wang et al, 2007; Williams et al, 1996; Zhang et al, 2018). The low frequency of plasmid uptake observed in our experiments is comparable to plasmid uptake frequencies reported in Vibrio (Paul et al, 1992).…”