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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Lopatkin AJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5698434 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Lopatkin Allison J AJ Meredith Hannah R HR Srimani Jaydeep K JK Pfeiffer Connor C Durrett Rick R You Lingchong L
Nature communications 20171122 1
In the absence of antibiotic-mediated selection, sensitive bacteria are expected to displace their resistant counterparts if resistance genes are costly. However, many resistance genes persist for long periods in the absence of antibiotics. Horizontal gene transfer (primarily conjugation) could explain this persistence, but it has been suggested that very high conjugation rates would be required. Here, we show that common conjugal plasmids, even when costly, are indeed transferred at sufficientl ...[more]