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Establishment Genes Present on pLS20 Family of Conjugative Plasmids Are Regulated in Two Different Ways

During conjugation, a conjugative DNA element is transferred from a donor to a recipient cell via a connecting channel. Conjugation has clinical relevance because it is the major route for spreading antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. The conjugation process can be divided into different step...

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Autores principales: Val-Calvo, Jorge, Miguel-Arribas, Andrés, Freire, Fernando, Abia, David, Wu, Ling Juan, Meijer, Wilfried J.J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8708921/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34946067
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9122465
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author Val-Calvo, Jorge
Miguel-Arribas, Andrés
Freire, Fernando
Abia, David
Wu, Ling Juan
Meijer, Wilfried J.J.
author_facet Val-Calvo, Jorge
Miguel-Arribas, Andrés
Freire, Fernando
Abia, David
Wu, Ling Juan
Meijer, Wilfried J.J.
author_sort Val-Calvo, Jorge
collection PubMed
description During conjugation, a conjugative DNA element is transferred from a donor to a recipient cell via a connecting channel. Conjugation has clinical relevance because it is the major route for spreading antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. The conjugation process can be divided into different steps. The initial steps carried out in the donor cell culminate in the transfer of a single DNA strand (ssDNA) of the conjugative element into the recipient cell. However, stable settlement of the conjugative element in the new host requires at least two additional events: conversion of the transferred ssDNA into double-stranded DNA and inhibition of the hosts’ defence mechanisms to prevent degradation of the transferred DNA. The genes involved in this late step are historically referred to as establishment genes. The defence mechanisms of the host must be inactivated rapidly and—importantly—transiently, because prolonged inactivation would make the cell vulnerable to the attack of other foreign DNA, such as those of phages. Therefore, expression of the establishment genes in the recipient cell has to be rapid but transient. Here, we studied regulation of the establishment genes present on the four clades of the pLS20 family of conjugative plasmids harboured by different Bacillus species. Evidence is presented that two fundamentally different mechanisms regulate the establishment genes present on these plasmids. Identification of the regulatory sequences were critical in revealing the establishment regulons. Remarkably, whereas the conjugation genes involved in the early steps of the conjugation process are conserved and are located in a single large operon, the establishment genes are highly variable and organised in multiple operons. We propose that the mosaical distribution of establishment genes in multiple operons is directly related to the variability of defence genes encoded by the host bacterial chromosomes.
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spelling pubmed-87089212021-12-25 Establishment Genes Present on pLS20 Family of Conjugative Plasmids Are Regulated in Two Different Ways Val-Calvo, Jorge Miguel-Arribas, Andrés Freire, Fernando Abia, David Wu, Ling Juan Meijer, Wilfried J.J. Microorganisms Article During conjugation, a conjugative DNA element is transferred from a donor to a recipient cell via a connecting channel. Conjugation has clinical relevance because it is the major route for spreading antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. The conjugation process can be divided into different steps. The initial steps carried out in the donor cell culminate in the transfer of a single DNA strand (ssDNA) of the conjugative element into the recipient cell. However, stable settlement of the conjugative element in the new host requires at least two additional events: conversion of the transferred ssDNA into double-stranded DNA and inhibition of the hosts’ defence mechanisms to prevent degradation of the transferred DNA. The genes involved in this late step are historically referred to as establishment genes. The defence mechanisms of the host must be inactivated rapidly and—importantly—transiently, because prolonged inactivation would make the cell vulnerable to the attack of other foreign DNA, such as those of phages. Therefore, expression of the establishment genes in the recipient cell has to be rapid but transient. Here, we studied regulation of the establishment genes present on the four clades of the pLS20 family of conjugative plasmids harboured by different Bacillus species. Evidence is presented that two fundamentally different mechanisms regulate the establishment genes present on these plasmids. Identification of the regulatory sequences were critical in revealing the establishment regulons. Remarkably, whereas the conjugation genes involved in the early steps of the conjugation process are conserved and are located in a single large operon, the establishment genes are highly variable and organised in multiple operons. We propose that the mosaical distribution of establishment genes in multiple operons is directly related to the variability of defence genes encoded by the host bacterial chromosomes. MDPI 2021-11-29 /pmc/articles/PMC8708921/ /pubmed/34946067 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9122465 Text en © 2021 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
Val-Calvo, Jorge
Miguel-Arribas, Andrés
Freire, Fernando
Abia, David
Wu, Ling Juan
Meijer, Wilfried J.J.
Establishment Genes Present on pLS20 Family of Conjugative Plasmids Are Regulated in Two Different Ways
title Establishment Genes Present on pLS20 Family of Conjugative Plasmids Are Regulated in Two Different Ways
title_full Establishment Genes Present on pLS20 Family of Conjugative Plasmids Are Regulated in Two Different Ways
title_fullStr Establishment Genes Present on pLS20 Family of Conjugative Plasmids Are Regulated in Two Different Ways
title_full_unstemmed Establishment Genes Present on pLS20 Family of Conjugative Plasmids Are Regulated in Two Different Ways
title_short Establishment Genes Present on pLS20 Family of Conjugative Plasmids Are Regulated in Two Different Ways
title_sort establishment genes present on pls20 family of conjugative plasmids are regulated in two different ways
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8708921/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34946067
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9122465
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