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

Small cryptic plasmids have no clear effect on the host fitness and their functional repertoire remains obscure. The naturally competent cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 harbours several small cryptic plasmids; whether their evolution with this species is supported by horizontal transfer re...

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Autores principales: Nies, Fabian, Wein, Tanita, Hanke, Dustin M., Springstein, Benjamin L., Alcorta, Jaime, Taubenheim, Claudia, Dagan, Tal
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10667661/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37794696
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.13203
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author Nies, Fabian
Wein, Tanita
Hanke, Dustin M.
Springstein, Benjamin L.
Alcorta, Jaime
Taubenheim, Claudia
Dagan, Tal
author_facet Nies, Fabian
Wein, Tanita
Hanke, Dustin M.
Springstein, Benjamin L.
Alcorta, Jaime
Taubenheim, Claudia
Dagan, Tal
author_sort Nies, Fabian
collection PubMed
description Small cryptic plasmids have no clear effect on the host fitness and their functional repertoire remains obscure. The naturally competent cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 harbours several small cryptic plasmids; whether their evolution with this species is supported by horizontal transfer remains understudied. Here, we show that the small cryptic plasmid DNA is transferred in the population exclusively by natural transformation, where the transfer frequency of plasmid‐encoded genes is similar to that of chromosome‐encoded genes. Establishing a system to follow gene transfer, we compared the transfer frequency of genes encoded in cryptic plasmids pCA2.4 (2378 bp) and pCB2.4 (2345 bp) within and between populations of two Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 labtypes (termed Kiel and Sevilla). Our results reveal that plasmid gene transfer frequency depends on the recipient labtype. Furthermore, gene transfer via whole plasmid uptake in the Sevilla labtype ranged among the lowest detected transfer rates in our experiments. Our study indicates that horizontal DNA transfer via natural transformation is frequent in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids that reside in naturally competent organisms. Furthermore, we suggest that the contribution of natural transformation to cryptic plasmid persistence in Synechocystis is limited.
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spelling pubmed-106676612023-10-04 Role of natural transformation in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 Nies, Fabian Wein, Tanita Hanke, Dustin M. Springstein, Benjamin L. Alcorta, Jaime Taubenheim, Claudia Dagan, Tal Environ Microbiol Rep Research Articles Small cryptic plasmids have no clear effect on the host fitness and their functional repertoire remains obscure. The naturally competent cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 harbours several small cryptic plasmids; whether their evolution with this species is supported by horizontal transfer remains understudied. Here, we show that the small cryptic plasmid DNA is transferred in the population exclusively by natural transformation, where the transfer frequency of plasmid‐encoded genes is similar to that of chromosome‐encoded genes. Establishing a system to follow gene transfer, we compared the transfer frequency of genes encoded in cryptic plasmids pCA2.4 (2378 bp) and pCB2.4 (2345 bp) within and between populations of two Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 labtypes (termed Kiel and Sevilla). Our results reveal that plasmid gene transfer frequency depends on the recipient labtype. Furthermore, gene transfer via whole plasmid uptake in the Sevilla labtype ranged among the lowest detected transfer rates in our experiments. Our study indicates that horizontal DNA transfer via natural transformation is frequent in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids that reside in naturally competent organisms. Furthermore, we suggest that the contribution of natural transformation to cryptic plasmid persistence in Synechocystis is limited. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2023-10-04 /pmc/articles/PMC10667661/ /pubmed/37794696 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.13203 Text en © 2023 The Authors. Environmental Microbiology Reports published by Applied Microbiology International and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Nies, Fabian
Wein, Tanita
Hanke, Dustin M.
Springstein, Benjamin L.
Alcorta, Jaime
Taubenheim, Claudia
Dagan, Tal
Role of natural transformation in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
title Role of natural transformation in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
title_full Role of natural transformation in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
title_fullStr Role of natural transformation in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
title_full_unstemmed Role of natural transformation in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
title_short Role of natural transformation in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
title_sort role of natural transformation in the evolution of small cryptic plasmids in synechocystis sp. pcc 6803
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10667661/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37794696
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.13203
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