Abstract
AbstractIn urinary tract infections different bacteria can live in a polymicrobial community, it is unknown how such community members affect the conjugation rate of uropathogenicEscherichia coli. We investigated the influence of the polymicrobial urinary tract infection (UTI) community context on the conjugation rate ofE. coliisolates in artificial urine medium. Pairwise conjugation rate experiments were conducted between a donorE. colistrain containing pOXA-48 and six uropathogenicE. coliisolates in the presence and absence of five community members to elucidate their effect on the rate of conjugation. We found that the basal conjugation rates in the absence of community members are genotype dependent. Interestingly, bacterial interactions have an overall positive effect onE. coliconjugation rates. Particularly Gram-positive enterococcal species were found to enhance the conjugation rates of most uropathogenicE. coliisolates. We hypothesize that the nature and co-culture of the interactions is important for these increased conjugation rates in AUM.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
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