pLS20 is the archetype of a new family of conjugative plasmids harboured by Bacillus species

• Main Authors: Abia, D. (Author), Meijer, W.J.J (Author), Miguel-Arribas, A. (Author), Val-Calvo, J. (Author), Wu, L.J (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2021
• Subjects: Article; Bacillus; Bacillus subtilis; bacterial protein; bacterial strain; cladistics; conjugative plasmid; controlled study; ecological niche; Gram positive bacterium; high throughput sequencing; nonhuman; nucleotide sequence; operon; phylogenetic tree; phylogeny; plasmid; pLS20 protein; species difference; unclassified drug
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Conjugation plays important roles in genome plasticity, adaptation and evolution but is also the major horizontal gene-transfer route responsible for spreading toxin, virulence and antibiotic resistance genes. A better understanding of the conjugation process is required for developing drugs and strategies to impede the conjugation-mediated spread of these genes. So far, only a limited number of conjugative elements have been studied. For most of them, it is not known whether they represent a group of conjugative elements, nor about their distribution patterns. Here we show that pLS20 from the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis is the prototype conjugative plasmid of a family of at least 35 members that can be divided into four clades, and which are harboured by different Bacillus species found in different global locations and environmental niches. Analyses of their phylogenetic relationship and their conjugation operons have expanded our understanding of a family of conjugative plasmids of Gram-positive origin. © 2021 The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics.