Plasmid Transfer by Conjugation in Gram-Negative Bacteria: From the Cellular to the Community Level

Abstract

Bacterial conjugation, also referred to as bacterial sex, is a major horizontal gene transfer mechanism through which DNA is transferred from a donor to a recipient bacterium by direct contact. Conjugation is universally conserved among bacteria and occurs in a wide range of environments (soil, plant surfaces, water, sewage, biofilms, and host-associated bacterial communities). Within these habitats, conjugation drives the rapid evolution and adaptation of bacterial strains by mediating the propagation of various metabolic properties, including symbiotic lifestyle, virulence, biofilm formation, resistance to heavy metals, and, most importantly, resistance to antibiotics. These properties make conjugation a fundamentally important process, and it is thus the focus of extensive study. Here, we review the key steps of plasmid transfer by conjugation in Gram-negative bacteria, by following the life cycle of the F factor during its transfer from the donor to the recipient cell. We also discuss our current knowledge of the extent and impact of conjugation within an environmentally and clinically relevant bacterial habitat, bacterial biofilms.

Characterization and Analysis of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPRs) in Pandemic and Non-Pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus Isolates from Seafood Sources

“…All V. parahaemolyticus isolates included at least one spacer perfectly matching some region of pL300. One of the homology searches revealed the perfect match between CRISPR spacer and plasmid region, encoded for DNA methyltransferase, an enzyme required to protect DNA from restriction digestion [49]. This gene has been previously reported to be specifically targeted by CRISPR array against the virus to prevent successful host infection and lysis [50].…”

Editorial: Prokaryotic Communications: From Macromolecular Interdomain to Intercellular Talks (Recognition) and Beyond

“…Conjugation is one of the most widespread mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer in bacteria (Virolle et al, 2020) and one of its consequences is the widespread dissemination of antimicrobial resistance genes. The World Health Organization has recognized antibiotic resistance as one of the major threats to public health (Tacconelli et al, 2018).…”

“…Besides quorum sensing, other forms of intercellular communications play important roles in microbial interactions. These include secretion systems such as the type VI secretion system (T6SS) that is central to predator-prey interactions (Cherrak et al, 2019), extracellular or membrane vesicles that transfer a multitude of biomolecules including DNA and RNA (Bose et al, 2021) and appendages such as conjugative pili that mediates the horizontal transfer of DNA through conjugation (Virolle et al, 2020). This Research Topic not only covers intercellular communication among bacteria but also the gamut of processes that govern intracellular communication within each bacterial cell.…”

Quantum Biotech and Internet of Virus Things: Towards a Theoretical Framework

“…Gómez-Aguado et al/2020 [29] mRNA: State of the Art and Future Perspectives. Virolle et al/2020 [30] Plasmid transfer by conjugation in gram-negative bacteria. Kowalski et al/2019 [31] Advances in Technologies for Therapeutic mRNA Delivery.…”

“…Envisage IoVT is conceived as a biological rendition of the IoT. Viruses store and process information as DNA structures called plasmids, that communicate from one organism to the next in a process called conjugation [30] generating a convoluted network mosaic. Viruses consist of a protein shell called a capsid and reproduce as well as survive by seizing control host cell and using its ribosomes to make new viral proteins.…”