Affiliation:
1. Marine Field Station, HERL-Cin., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, West Kingston, Rhode Island 02892 and University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island 02881
Abstract
Strains of
Escherichia coli
recently isolated from human feces were examined for the frequency with which they accept an R factor (R1) from a derepressed fi
+
strain of
E. coli
K-12 and transfer it to fecal and laboratory strains. Colicins produced by some of the isolates rapidly killed the other half of the mating pair; therefore, conjugation was conducted by a membrane filtration procedure whereby this effect was minimized. The majority of fecal
E. coli
isolates accepted the R factor at lower frequencies than K-12 F
−
, varying from 10
−2
per donor cell to undetectable levels. The frequencies with which certain fecal recipients received the R-plasmid were increased when its R
+
transconjugant was either cured of the R1-plasmid and remated with the fi
+
strain or backcrossed into the parental strain. The former suggests the loss of an incompatibility plasmid, and the latter suggests the modification of the R1-plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In general, the fecal R
+
E. coli
transconjugants were less effective donors for K-12 F
−
and heterologous fecal strains than was the fi
+
K-12 strain, whereas the single strain of
Citrobacter freundii
examined was generally more competent. Passage of the R1-plasmid to strains of salmonellae reached mating frequencies of 10
−1
per donor cell when the recipient was a
Salmonella typhi
previously cured of its resident R-plasmid. However, two recently isolated strains of
Salmonella
accepted the R1-plasmid from
E. coli
K-12 R
+
or the R
+
E. coli
transconjugants at frequencies of 5 × 10
−7
or less.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Ecology,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology,Food Science,Biotechnology
Cited by
23 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献