Authors: Hyerim Hong HyeokJin Ko InGeol Choi Woojun Park
Publish Date: 2013/12/13
Volume: 67, Issue: 2, Pages: 369-379
Abstract
We used culturedependent and cultureindependent methods to extract previously undescribed plasmids harboring tetracycline TC resistance genes from activated sludge The extracted plasmids were transformed into naturally competent Acinetobacter oleivorans DR1 to recover a nonEscherichia colibased plasmid The transformed cells showed 80–100fold higher TC resistance than the wildtype strain Restriction length polymorphism performed using 30 transformed cells showed four different types of plasmids Illuminabased whole sequencing of the four plasmids identified three previously unreported plasmids and one previously reported plasmid All plasmids carried TC resistancerelated genes tetL tetH tetracycline transcriptional regulators tetR and mobilizationrelated genes As per expression analysis TC resistance genes were functional in the presence of TC The recovered plasmids showed mosaic gene acquisition through horizontal gene transfer Membrane fluidity hydrophobicity biofilm formation motility growth rate sensitivity to stresses and quorum sensing signals of the transformed cells were different from those of the wildtype cells Plasmidbearing cells seemed to have an energy burden for maintaining and expressing plasmid genes Our data showed that acquisition of TC resistance through plasmid uptake is related to loss of biological fitness Thus cells acquiring antibiotic resistance plasmids can survive in the presence of antibiotics but must pay ecological costs
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