Selection and Plasmid Transfer Underlie Adaptive Mutation in Escherichia coli

Adaptive mutation in Escherichia coli.

In 1988 John Cairns, Julie Overbaugh, and Stephan Miller published a paper entitled “The origin of mutants,” in which they suggested that bacteria could choose which mutations to make (11). Shortly thereafter, Cairns and I began collaborating on a National Science Foundation-funded project to investigate the genetic basis of what was popularly called “directed mutation” (although at the time we...

Rebuttal: adaptive mutation in Escherichia coli (Foster).

If mutations arose in nongrowing cells, as proposed in Foster’s paper (1), then stress-induced mutagenesis would seem inescapable. The plated population certainly grows very little. However, no evidence is provided that reversion occurs in this population and no effort is made to counter evidence to the contrary (see below)—that mutations actually arise in cells growing under selection within d...

Mutation in ESBL Plasmid from Escherichia coli O104:H4 Leads Autoagglutination and Enhanced Plasmid Dissemination

Conjugative plasmids are one of the main driving force of wide-spreading of multidrug resistance (MDR) bacteria. They are self-transmittable via conjugation as carrying the required set of genes and cis-acting DNA locus for direct cell-to-cell transfer. IncI incompatibility plasmids are nowadays often associated with extended-spectrum beta-lactamases producing Enterobacteria in clinic and envir...

Frequency-Dependent Selection for Plasmid-Containing Cells of ESCHERICHIA COLI.

Colicin-producing plasmid-containing cells of E. coli exhibit frequency-dependent selection when grown in glucose-limited continuous culture with the corresponding plasmid-free strain. The bases of this frequency-dependent effect are shown to be (1) the lower growth rate of the plasmid-containing strain under these conditions, and (2) the production of colicin, which attenuates the growth rate ...

Study of antimicrobial susceptibility and plasmid analysis of Escherichia coli in Iran, Urmia