Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1997 Mar;179(5):1622–1627. doi: 10.1128/jb.179.5.1622-1627.1997

Recent horizontal transmission of plasmids between natural populations of Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica.

E F Boyd 1, D L Hartl 1
PMCID: PMC178875  PMID: 9045822

Abstract

Seventy-one natural isolates obtained from a Salmonella reference collection were examined for the presence of plasmids closely related to the Escherichia coli F plasmid. The collection consists of several serovars of the S. enterica Typhimurium complex, subspecies I, to which 99% of pathogenic salmonellae belong. Molecular genetic techniques of DNA hybridization, along with PCR and DNA sequencing, were used to examine the occurrence, distribution, and genetic diversity of F-like plasmids among Salmonella strains. The F plasmid genes examined were finO, traD, traY, and repA, which map at dispersed positions on the F plasmid of E. coli. Comparative sequence analysis of each of the four genes in Salmonella plasmids showed them to be homologous (in some cases, virtually identical) to those found in F plasmids of E. coli natural isolates. Furthermore, the frequency of F-like plasmids in Salmonella strains was approximately the same as that observed in the E. coli Reference Collection. However, in Salmonella, the distribution was confined predominately to the serovars Typhimurium and Muenchen. The unexpected finding of a shared pool of F-like plasmids between S. enterica and E. coli demonstrates the significant role of conjugation in the histories of these important bacterial species.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (457.4 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Achtman M., Mercer A., Kusecek B., Pohl A., Heuzenroeder M., Aaronson W., Sutton A., Silver R. P. Six widespread bacterial clones among Escherichia coli K1 isolates. Infect Immun. 1983 Jan;39(1):315–335. doi: 10.1128/iai.39.1.315-335.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Ayala F. J., Krane D. E., Hartl D. L. Genetic variation in IncI1-ColIb plasmids. J Mol Evol. 1994 Aug;39(2):129–133. doi: 10.1007/BF00163801. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Barker R., Old D. C., Sharp J. C. Phage type/biotype groups of Salmonella typhimurium in Scotland 1974-6: variation during spread of epidemic clones. J Hyg (Lond) 1980 Feb;84(1):115–125. doi: 10.1017/s0022172400026607. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Beltran P., Plock S. A., Smith N. H., Whittam T. S., Old D. C., Selander R. K. Reference collection of strains of the Salmonella typhimurium complex from natural populations. J Gen Microbiol. 1991 Mar;137(3):601–606. doi: 10.1099/00221287-137-3-601. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Bergquist P. L., Saadi S., Maas W. K. Distribution of basic replicons having homology with RepFIA, RepFIB, and RepFIC among IncF group plasmids. Plasmid. 1986 Jan;15(1):19–34. doi: 10.1016/0147-619x(86)90011-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bisercić M., Ochman H. Natural populations of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium harbor the same classes of insertion sequences. Genetics. 1993 Mar;133(3):449–454. doi: 10.1093/genetics/133.3.449. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Bisercić M., Ochman H. The ancestry of insertion sequences common to Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. J Bacteriol. 1993 Dec;175(24):7863–7868. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.24.7863-7868.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Boyd E. F., Hill C. W., Rich S. M., Hartl D. L. Mosaic structure of plasmids from natural populations of Escherichia coli. Genetics. 1996 Jul;143(3):1091–1100. doi: 10.1093/genetics/143.3.1091. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Boyd E. F., Nelson K., Wang F. S., Whittam T. S., Selander R. K. Molecular genetic basis of allelic polymorphism in malate dehydrogenase (mdh) in natural populations of Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Feb 15;91(4):1280–1284. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.4.1280. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Boyd E. F., Wang F. S., Whittam T. S., Selander R. K. Molecular genetic relationships of the salmonellae. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1996 Mar;62(3):804–808. doi: 10.1128/aem.62.3.804-808.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Brenner D. J., Falkow S. Genetics of the Enterobacteriaceae. C. Molecular relationships among members of the Enterobacteriaceae. Adv Genet. 1971;16:81–118. doi: 10.1016/s0065-2660(08)60355-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. DuBose R. F., Dykhuizen D. E., Hartl D. L. Genetic exchange among natural isolates of bacteria: recombination within the phoA gene of Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Sep;85(18):7036–7040. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.18.7036. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Frost L. S., Ippen-Ihler K., Skurray R. A. Analysis of the sequence and gene products of the transfer region of the F sex factor. Microbiol Rev. 1994 Jun;58(2):162–210. doi: 10.1128/mr.58.2.162-210.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Gibbs M. D., Spiers A. J., Bergquist P. L. RepFIB: a basic replicon of large plasmids. Plasmid. 1993 May;29(3):165–179. doi: 10.1006/plas.1993.1020. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Hartl D. L., Medhora M., Green L., Dykhuizen D. E. The evolution of DNA sequences in Escherichia coli. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1986 Jan 29;312(1154):191–204. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1986.0001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Hartl D. L., Sawyer S. A. Why do unrelated insertion sequences occur together in the genome of Escherichia coli? Genetics. 1988 Mar;118(3):537–541. doi: 10.1093/genetics/118.3.537. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Lawrence J. G., Ochman H., Hartl D. L. Molecular and evolutionary relationships among enteric bacteria. J Gen Microbiol. 1991 Aug;137(8):1911–1921. doi: 10.1099/00221287-137-8-1911. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Lawrence J. G., Ochman H., Hartl D. L. The evolution of insertion sequences within enteric bacteria. Genetics. 1992 May;131(1):9–20. doi: 10.1093/genetics/131.1.9. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Li J., Ochman H., Groisman E. A., Boyd E. F., Solomon F., Nelson K., Selander R. K. Relationship between evolutionary rate and cellular location among the Inv/Spa invasion proteins of Salmonella enterica. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1995 Aug 1;92(16):7252–7256. doi: 10.1073/pnas.92.16.7252. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Ochman H., Selander R. K. Standard reference strains of Escherichia coli from natural populations. J Bacteriol. 1984 Feb;157(2):690–693. doi: 10.1128/jb.157.2.690-693.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Ochman H., Wilson A. C. Evolution in bacteria: evidence for a universal substitution rate in cellular genomes. J Mol Evol. 1987;26(1-2):74–86. doi: 10.1007/BF02111283. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Riley M. A., Gordon D. M. A survey of Col plasmids in natural isolates of Escherichia coli and an investigation into the stability of Col-plasmid lineages. J Gen Microbiol. 1992 Jul;138(7):1345–1352. doi: 10.1099/00221287-138-7-1345. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Riley M. A. Positive selection for colicin diversity in bacteria. Mol Biol Evol. 1993 Sep;10(5):1048–1059. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040054. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Riley M. A., Tan Y., Wang J. Nucleotide polymorphism in colicin E1 and Ia plasmids from natural isolates of Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Nov 8;91(23):11276–11280. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.23.11276. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Sawyer S. A., Dykhuizen D. E., DuBose R. F., Green L., Mutangadura-Mhlanga T., Wolczyk D. F., Hartl D. L. Distribution and abundance of insertion sequences among natural isolates of Escherichia coli. Genetics. 1987 Jan;115(1):51–63. doi: 10.1093/genetics/115.1.51. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Sharp P. M. Determinants of DNA sequence divergence between Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium: codon usage, map position, and concerted evolution. J Mol Evol. 1991 Jul;33(1):23–33. doi: 10.1007/BF02100192. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES