1887

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Volume 8, Issue 3

Fatal affairs – conjugational transfer of a dinoflagellate-killing plasmid between marine Open Access

Abstract

The roseobacter group of marine bacteria is characterized by a mosaic distribution of ecologically important phenotypes. These are often encoded on mobile extrachromosomal replicons. So far, conjugation had only been experimentally proven between the two model organisms and . Here, we show that two large natural RepABC-type plasmids from can be transferred into representatives of all known major lineages. Complete genome sequencing of the newly established transconjugants confirmed their genomic integrity. The conjugated plasmids were stably maintained as single copy number replicons in the genuine as well as the new host. Co-cultivation of and the transconjugants with the dinoflagellate demonstrated that is a probiotic strain that improves the yield and stability of the dinoflagellate culture. The transconjugant carrying the 191 kb plasmid, but not the 126 kb sister plasmid, killed the dinoflagellate in co-culture.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): bacteria–algae interaction , conjugation , horizontal gene transfer and Roseobacter
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Award 34509606)
    • Principle Award Recipient: NotApplicable
© 2022 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License.
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2022-03-07
2024-04-16
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Fatal affairs – conjugational transfer of a dinoflagellate-killing plasmid between marine Rhodobacterales
M Gen 8, 000787 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000787
/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000787
/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000787
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