Cargando…

Plasmid Costs Explain Plasmid Maintenance, Irrespective of the Nature of Compensatory Mutations

Conjugative plasmids often carry virulence and antibiotic-resistant genes. Therefore, understanding the behavior of these extra-chromosomal DNA elements gives insights into their spread. Bacteria frequently replicate slower after plasmids’ entry, an observation inconsistent with the plasmids’ ubiqui...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rebelo, João S., Domingues, Célia P. F., Dionisio, Francisco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10215365/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37237742
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12050841
_version_ 1785048045657784320
author Rebelo, João S.
Domingues, Célia P. F.
Dionisio, Francisco
author_facet Rebelo, João S.
Domingues, Célia P. F.
Dionisio, Francisco
author_sort Rebelo, João S.
collection PubMed
description Conjugative plasmids often carry virulence and antibiotic-resistant genes. Therefore, understanding the behavior of these extra-chromosomal DNA elements gives insights into their spread. Bacteria frequently replicate slower after plasmids’ entry, an observation inconsistent with the plasmids’ ubiquity in nature. Several hypotheses explain the maintenance of plasmids among bacterial communities. However, the numerous combinations of bacterial species and strains, plasmids, and environments claim a robust elucidatory mechanism of plasmid maintenance. Previous works have shown that donor cells already adapted to the plasmid may use the plasmid as a ‘weapon’ to compete with non-adapted plasmid-free cells. Computer simulations corroborated this hypothesis with a wide range of parameters. Here we show that donor cells benefit from harboring conjugative plasmids even if compensatory mutations in transconjugant cells occur in the plasmid, not on chromosomes. The advantage’s leading causes are as follows: mutations take time to appear, many plasmids remain costly, and re-transfer of mutated plasmids usually occurs in sites distant to the original donors, implying little competition between these cells. Research in previous decades cautioned against uncritical acceptance of the hypothesis that resistance cost helps to preserve antibiotics’ effectiveness. This work gives a new twist to this conclusion by showing that costs help antibiotic-resistant bacteria to compete with plasmid-free cells even if compensatory mutations appear in plasmids.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10215365
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-102153652023-05-27 Plasmid Costs Explain Plasmid Maintenance, Irrespective of the Nature of Compensatory Mutations Rebelo, João S. Domingues, Célia P. F. Dionisio, Francisco Antibiotics (Basel) Article Conjugative plasmids often carry virulence and antibiotic-resistant genes. Therefore, understanding the behavior of these extra-chromosomal DNA elements gives insights into their spread. Bacteria frequently replicate slower after plasmids’ entry, an observation inconsistent with the plasmids’ ubiquity in nature. Several hypotheses explain the maintenance of plasmids among bacterial communities. However, the numerous combinations of bacterial species and strains, plasmids, and environments claim a robust elucidatory mechanism of plasmid maintenance. Previous works have shown that donor cells already adapted to the plasmid may use the plasmid as a ‘weapon’ to compete with non-adapted plasmid-free cells. Computer simulations corroborated this hypothesis with a wide range of parameters. Here we show that donor cells benefit from harboring conjugative plasmids even if compensatory mutations in transconjugant cells occur in the plasmid, not on chromosomes. The advantage’s leading causes are as follows: mutations take time to appear, many plasmids remain costly, and re-transfer of mutated plasmids usually occurs in sites distant to the original donors, implying little competition between these cells. Research in previous decades cautioned against uncritical acceptance of the hypothesis that resistance cost helps to preserve antibiotics’ effectiveness. This work gives a new twist to this conclusion by showing that costs help antibiotic-resistant bacteria to compete with plasmid-free cells even if compensatory mutations appear in plasmids. MDPI 2023-05-01 /pmc/articles/PMC10215365/ /pubmed/37237742 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12050841 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Rebelo, João S.
Domingues, Célia P. F.
Dionisio, Francisco
Plasmid Costs Explain Plasmid Maintenance, Irrespective of the Nature of Compensatory Mutations
title Plasmid Costs Explain Plasmid Maintenance, Irrespective of the Nature of Compensatory Mutations
title_full Plasmid Costs Explain Plasmid Maintenance, Irrespective of the Nature of Compensatory Mutations
title_fullStr Plasmid Costs Explain Plasmid Maintenance, Irrespective of the Nature of Compensatory Mutations
title_full_unstemmed Plasmid Costs Explain Plasmid Maintenance, Irrespective of the Nature of Compensatory Mutations
title_short Plasmid Costs Explain Plasmid Maintenance, Irrespective of the Nature of Compensatory Mutations
title_sort plasmid costs explain plasmid maintenance, irrespective of the nature of compensatory mutations
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10215365/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37237742
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12050841
work_keys_str_mv AT rebelojoaos plasmidcostsexplainplasmidmaintenanceirrespectiveofthenatureofcompensatorymutations
AT dominguesceliapf plasmidcostsexplainplasmidmaintenanceirrespectiveofthenatureofcompensatorymutations
AT dionisiofrancisco plasmidcostsexplainplasmidmaintenanceirrespectiveofthenatureofcompensatorymutations