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Large Deletions in the pAtC58 Megaplasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Can Confer Reduced Carriage Cost and Increased Expression of Virulence Genes

The accessory plasmid pAtC58 of the common laboratory strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens confers numerous catabolic functions and has been proposed to play a role in virulence. Genomic sequencing of evolved laboratory strains of A. tumefaciens revealed the presence of multiple deletion events in th...

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Autores principales: Morton, Elise R., Merritt, Peter M., Bever, James D., Fuqua, Clay
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730347/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23783172
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evt095
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author Morton, Elise R.
Merritt, Peter M.
Bever, James D.
Fuqua, Clay
author_facet Morton, Elise R.
Merritt, Peter M.
Bever, James D.
Fuqua, Clay
author_sort Morton, Elise R.
collection PubMed
description The accessory plasmid pAtC58 of the common laboratory strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens confers numerous catabolic functions and has been proposed to play a role in virulence. Genomic sequencing of evolved laboratory strains of A. tumefaciens revealed the presence of multiple deletion events in the At plasmid, with reductions in plasmid size ranging from 25% to 30% (115–194 kb). Flanking both ends of the sites of these deletions is a short-nucleotide repeat sequence that is in a single copy in the deleted plasmids, characteristic of a phage- or transposon-mediated deletion event. This repeat sequence is widespread throughout the C58 genome, but concentrated on the At plasmid, suggesting its frequency to be nonrandom. In this study, we assess the prevalence of the larger of these deletions in multiple C58 derivatives and characterize its functional significance. We find that in addition to elevating virulence gene expression, this deletion is associated with a significantly reduced carriage cost to the cell. These observations are a clear demonstration of the dynamic nature of the bacterial genome and suggest a mechanism for genetic plasticity of these costly but otherwise stable plasmids. Additionally, this phenomenon could be the basis for some of the dramatic recombination events so ubiquitous within and among megaplasmids.
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spelling pubmed-37303472013-08-01 Large Deletions in the pAtC58 Megaplasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Can Confer Reduced Carriage Cost and Increased Expression of Virulence Genes Morton, Elise R. Merritt, Peter M. Bever, James D. Fuqua, Clay Genome Biol Evol Research Article The accessory plasmid pAtC58 of the common laboratory strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens confers numerous catabolic functions and has been proposed to play a role in virulence. Genomic sequencing of evolved laboratory strains of A. tumefaciens revealed the presence of multiple deletion events in the At plasmid, with reductions in plasmid size ranging from 25% to 30% (115–194 kb). Flanking both ends of the sites of these deletions is a short-nucleotide repeat sequence that is in a single copy in the deleted plasmids, characteristic of a phage- or transposon-mediated deletion event. This repeat sequence is widespread throughout the C58 genome, but concentrated on the At plasmid, suggesting its frequency to be nonrandom. In this study, we assess the prevalence of the larger of these deletions in multiple C58 derivatives and characterize its functional significance. We find that in addition to elevating virulence gene expression, this deletion is associated with a significantly reduced carriage cost to the cell. These observations are a clear demonstration of the dynamic nature of the bacterial genome and suggest a mechanism for genetic plasticity of these costly but otherwise stable plasmids. Additionally, this phenomenon could be the basis for some of the dramatic recombination events so ubiquitous within and among megaplasmids. Oxford University Press 2013 2013-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC3730347/ /pubmed/23783172 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evt095 Text en © The Author(s) 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Research Article
Morton, Elise R.
Merritt, Peter M.
Bever, James D.
Fuqua, Clay
Large Deletions in the pAtC58 Megaplasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Can Confer Reduced Carriage Cost and Increased Expression of Virulence Genes
title Large Deletions in the pAtC58 Megaplasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Can Confer Reduced Carriage Cost and Increased Expression of Virulence Genes
title_full Large Deletions in the pAtC58 Megaplasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Can Confer Reduced Carriage Cost and Increased Expression of Virulence Genes
title_fullStr Large Deletions in the pAtC58 Megaplasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Can Confer Reduced Carriage Cost and Increased Expression of Virulence Genes
title_full_unstemmed Large Deletions in the pAtC58 Megaplasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Can Confer Reduced Carriage Cost and Increased Expression of Virulence Genes
title_short Large Deletions in the pAtC58 Megaplasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Can Confer Reduced Carriage Cost and Increased Expression of Virulence Genes
title_sort large deletions in the patc58 megaplasmid of agrobacterium tumefaciens can confer reduced carriage cost and increased expression of virulence genes
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730347/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23783172
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evt095
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