Costs and benefits of natural transformation in Acinetobacter baylyi

BMC Microbiology

Research Article

Mikkel M. Liljegren¹  Kristina Borch-Pedersen²  Vidar Sørum³  Ane L. G. Utnes³  Raul Primicerio³  Pål J. Johnsen³  Klaus Harms⁴  Nils Hülter⁵ 

[1] Centre for Ecolgical and Evolutionary Synthesis, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066 Blindern, 0316, Oslo, Norway;Department of Food Safety and Infection Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Biosciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 8146 Dep, 0033, Oslo, Norway;Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, P.O. Box 6050 Langnes, Tromsø, Norway;Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, P.O. Box 6050 Langnes, Tromsø, Norway;Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark;Genomic Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 11, 24118, Kiel, Germany;Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, P.O. Box 6050 Langnes, Tromsø, Norway;

关键词: Competence;    Natural transformation;    Horizontal gene transfer;    Bacterial evolution;    DNA repair;    DprA;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12866-017-0953-2

 received in 2016-06-25, accepted in 2017-02-10,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundNatural transformation enables acquisition of adaptive traits and drives genome evolution in prokaryotes. Yet, the selective forces responsible for the evolution and maintenance of natural transformation remain elusive since taken-up DNA has also been hypothesized to provide benefits such as nutrients or templates for DNA repair to individual cells.ResultsWe investigated the immediate effects of DNA uptake and recombination on the naturally competent bacterium Acinetobacter baylyi in both benign and genotoxic conditions. In head-to-head competition experiments between DNA uptake-proficient and -deficient strains, we observed a fitness benefit of DNA uptake independent of UV stress. This benefit was found with both homologous and heterologous DNA and was independent of recombination. Recombination with taken-up DNA reduced survival of transformed cells with increasing levels of UV-stress through interference with nucleotide excision repair, suggesting that DNA strand breaks occur during recombination attempts with taken-up DNA. Consistent with this, we show that absence of RecBCD and RecFOR recombinational DNA repair pathways strongly decrease natural transformation.ConclusionsOur data show a physiological benefit of DNA uptake unrelated to recombination. In contrast, recombination during transformation is a strand break inducing process that represents a previously unrecognized cost of natural transformation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017