ArticlePLoS genetics2011
The stb operon balances the requirements for vegetative stability and conjugative transfer of plasmid R388.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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33 citing papers in PubMed, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Encounter rates and engagement times limit the transmission of conjugative plasmids.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Phage predation accelerates the spread of plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance.Nature communications · 2024Article
- DNA Segregation in Enterobacteria.EcoSal Plus · 2023Review
- Evaporation-induced hydrodynamics control plasmid transfer during surface-associated microbial growth.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2023Article
- A mathematician's guide to plasmids: an introduction to plasmid biology for modellers.Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2023Review
- Host-specific plasmid evolution explains the variable spread of clinical antibiotic-resistance plasmids.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Molecular Analysis of pSK1 par: A Novel Plasmid Partitioning System Encoded by Staphylococcal Multiresistance Plasmids.Journal of molecular biology · 2022Article
- In silico prediction of the enzymes involved in the degradation of the herbicide molinate by Gulosibacter molinativorax ON4Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Deeplasmid: deep learning accurately separates plasmids from bacterial chromosomes.Nucleic acids research · 2022Article
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- Alpha-Helical Protein KfrC Acts as a Switch between the Lateral and Vertical Modes of Dissemination of Broad-Host-Range RA3 Plasmid from IncU (IncP-6) Incompatibility Group.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Monitoring Bacterial Conjugation by Optical Microscopy.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- Article
- Conjugative Transfer of IncP-9 Catabolic Plasmids Requires a Previously Uncharacterized Gene,Applied and environmental microbiology · 2019Article
- Plasmid Localization and Partition inEcoSal Plus · 2019Review
- Comparative genomic analysis of Acinetobacter spp. plasmids originating from clinical settings and environmental habitats.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Mutation in ESBL Plasmid fromFrontiers in microbiology · 2018Article
- Characterization of a blaNDM‑1‑harboring plasmid from a Salmonella enterica clinical isolate in China.Molecular medicine reports · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The conjugative plasmid R388 and a number of other plasmids carry an operon, stbABC, adjacent to the origin of conjugative transfer. We investigated the role of the stbA, stbB, and stbC genes. Deletion of stbA affected both conjugation and stability. It led to a 50-fold increase in R388 transfer frequency, as well as to high plasmid loss. In contrast, deletion of stbB abolished conjugation but provoked no change in plasmid stability. Deletion of stbC showed no effect, neither in conjugation nor in stability. Deletion of the entire stb operon had no effect on conjugation, which remained as in the wild-type plasmid, but led to a plasmid loss phenotype similar to that of the R388ΔstbA mutant. We concluded that StbA is required for plasmid stability and that StbA and StbB control conjugation. We next observed the intracellular positioning of R388 DNA molecules and showed that they localize as discrete foci evenly distributed in live Escherichia coli cells. Plasmid instability of the R388ΔΔstbA mutant correlated with aberrant localization of the plasmid DNA molecules as clusters, either at one cell pole, at both poles, or at the cell center. In contrast, plasmid molecules in the R388ΔΔstbB mutant were mostly excluded from the cell poles. Thus, results indicate that defects in both plasmid maintenance and transfer are a consequence of variations in the intracellular positioning of plasmid DNA. We propose that StbA and StbB constitute an atypical plasmid stabilization system that reconciles two modes of plasmid R388 physiology: a maintenance mode (replication and segregation) and a propagation mode (conjugation). The consequences of this novel concept in plasmid physiology will be discussed.
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