They play a crucial role in bacterial evolution as they are key drivers of horizontal gene transfer, the major process of gene repertoire variation in prokaryotes. Plasmids are extrachromosomal self-replicating molecules of DNA able to transfer between bacteria mainly by conjugation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. acknowledges the financial support of Equipe FRM (EQU201903007835) and the Laboratoire d’Excellence IBEID (ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID). was supported by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Grant ID CT27/16-CT28/16 and EB14/19). was supported by grants from the European Joint Program One Health EJP, ARDIG Grant Agreement No 77380 from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting information files.įunding: B.G.Z. Received: JAccepted: NovemPublished: November 30, 2021Ĭopyright: © 2021 Ares-Arroyo et al. PLoS Genet 17(11):Įditor: Josep Casadesús, Universidad de Sevilla, SPAIN We observed that these plasmids have evolved for a long time within γ-Proteobacteria acquiring different genetic features in specific hosts, being major players in the spread of antimicrobial resistance determinants.Ĭitation: Ares-Arroyo M, Rocha EPC, Gonzalez-Zorn B (2021) Evolution of ColE1-like plasmids across γ-Proteobacteria: From bacteriocin production to antimicrobial resistance. In this work, we have analyzed the ColE1-like plasmid family, whose study has been neglected even if they are one of the main groups of small plasmids in natural populations of Proteobacteria. However, although small mobilizable and non-conjugative replicons have been traditionally overlooked when analyzing plasmid-mediated antimicrobial resistance, they have recently been described as important carriers of AMR genes. Among all the mobile genetic elements, plasmids have been the focus of attention as these extrachromosomal molecules of DNA are able to mobilize several antimicrobial resistance genes at once through conjugation. The extraordinary adaptability of bacteria and the massive prevalence of mobile genetic elements within populations has turned antimicrobial resistance into a growing threat to Public Health. ![]() These results illustrate how families of plasmids evolve and adapt their gene repertoires to bacterial adaptive requirements. Furthermore, ColE1 plasmids facilitate the intragenomic mobilization of these determinants, as various replicons were identified co-integrated with large non-ColE1 plasmids, mostly via transposases. ![]() Additionally, ColE1 plasmids show a functional shift over the last decades, losing their characteristic bacteriocin production while gaining several antimicrobial resistance genes, mainly enzymatic determinants and including several extended-spectrum betalactamases and carbapenemases. The phylogenetic analysis of these replicons and their characteristic MOB P5/HEN relaxases suggest that ColE1 plasmids have diverged apart, with little transfer across orders, but frequent transfer across families. We identified 1,035 ColE1 plasmids in five Orders of γ-Proteobacteria, several of which are described here for the first time. ![]() Here, we built specific Hidden Markov Model (HMM) profiles to search ColE1 replicons within genomes. ![]() Despite being massively used, the hosts, functions, and evolutionary history of these plasmids remain poorly known. In this work, we focus on the ColE1-like plasmid family, whose distinctive replication and multicopy nature has given rise to key discoveries and tools in molecular biology. Understanding the transfer and maintenance of antimicrobial resistance genes mediated by mobile genetic elements is thus urgent. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the major threats to Public Health worldwide.
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