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Volume 167, Issue 1

Tn transposition in the course of natural transformation enables horizontal antibiotic resistance spread in Open Access

Abstract

Transposons are genetic elements that change their intracellular genomic position by transposition and are spread horizontally between bacteria when located on plasmids. It was recently discovered that transposition from fully heterologous DNA also occurs in the course of natural transformation. Here, we characterize the molecular details and constraints of this process using the replicative transposon Tn and the naturally competent bacterium . We find that chromosomal insertion of Tn by transposition occurs at low but detectable frequencies and preferably around the terminus of replication. We show that Tn transposition is facilitated by transient expression of the transposase and resolvase encoded by the donor DNA. RecA protein is essential for the formation of a circular, double-stranded cytoplasmic intermediate from incoming donor DNA, and RecO is beneficial but not essential in this process. Absence of the recipient RecBCD nuclease stabilizes the double-stranded intermediate. Based on these results, we suggest a mechanistic model for transposition during natural transformation.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): Acinetobacter baylyi , natural transformation , Tn1 , Tn4401 and transposition
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Norges Forskningsråd (Award 275672)
    • Principle Award Recipient: KlausHarms
© 2021 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
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2020-12-03
2024-05-07
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Tn1 transposition in the course of natural transformation enables horizontal antibiotic resistance spread in Acinetobacter baylyi
Microbiology 167, 001003 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001003
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001003
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001003
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