Figure 5.

Partition-mediated incompatibility phenotypes. (A) Schematic representation of the incompatibility at the onset of cell division. Two different replicons, represented with orange and blue colors, are fully compatible if their partition systems (red and green circles) are distinct (left) or are incompatible if their partition systems cross-react (gray circles) (right). In the latter case, sibling plasmids would frequently be inherited in the same daughter cell, leading to mutual exclusion. (B) Mechanisms driving incompatibility phenotypes. Each partition component leads to mutual exclusion of plasmids sharing parts of the partition locus (see main text for details).