PubMed · 7979081
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M Spigelman. 1994. Ancient DNA.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7979081/
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Agrobacterium transfers DNA into plant cells, leading to tumors, hairy roots (HR), and natural genetically modified organisms (nGMOs). Transferred DNAs (T-DNAs) from agrobacteria and T-DNA-derived cellular T-DNAs (cT-DNAs) from nGMOs vary considerably and may carry up to 15 different genes. Among these, opine synthase (ops) genes encode the synthesis of opines used as nutrients by the agrobacteria. Earlier studies predicted large numbers of naturally transformed plant species, but only few have been identified and studied so far. We therefore developed a general method to detect cT-DNAs in all publicly available whole genome sequences (WGS) and Sequence Read Archive (SRA) data from land plants. To avoid false positives, we only retained DNA sequences coding for T-DNA proteins. A total of 2614 nGMO species were identified, most are eudicots. However, cT-DNAs were also found in 82 mosses and 75 ferns, showing that Agrobacterium can also generate natural transformants among the early land plants. Analysis of 149 cT-DNA maps revealed different types of T-DNAs. Most notably, these included small T-DNAs (mini T-DNAs) with a single opine synthase gene. Mini T-DNAs are not expected to induce tumors or HRs. The predominance of mini cT-DNAs in mosses and ferns, and the presence of more complex cT-DNAs in spermatophytes, indicate that mini T-DNAs represent the earliest types of T-DNA. Our study also detected unusual T-DNA integration patterns, with multiple copies spread out over several hundreds of kilobases.
Escherichia coli isolates recovered from patients during a clonal outbreak in a Warsaw, Poland, hospital in 1997 produced different levels of an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) of the SHV type. The beta-lactamase hyperproduction correlated with the multiplication of ESBL gene copies within a plasmid. Here, we present the complete nucleotide sequence of plasmid p1658/97 carried by the isolates recovered during the outbreak. The plasmid is 125,491 bp and shows a mosaic structure in which all modules constituting the plasmid core are homologous to those found in plasmids F and R100 and are separated by segments of homology to other known regions (plasmid R64, Providencia rettgeri genomic island R391, Vibrio cholerae STX transposon, Klebsiella pneumoniae or E. coli chromosomes). Plasmid p1658/97 bears two replication systems, IncFII and IncFIB; we demonstrated that both are active in E. coli. The presence of an active partition system (sopABC locus) and two postsegregational killing systems (pemIK and hok/sok) indicates that the plasmid should be stably maintained in E. coli populations. The conjugative transfer is ensured by the operons of the tra and trb genes. We also demonstrate that the plasmidic segment undergoing amplification contains the blaSHV-5 gene and is homologous to a 7.9-kb fragment of the K. pneumoniae chromosome. The amplicon displays the structure of a composite transposon of type I.
Adaptation to extreme desiccation has conferred extraordinary radiation resistance on the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans. How this organism is able to reconstruct a genome shattered by gamma rays has now been revealed.