ArticlePLoS biology2013
Distributive conjugal transfer in mycobacteria generates progeny with meiotic-like genome-wide mosaicism, allowing mapping of a mating identity locus.
Article in PLoS biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers.
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Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 96 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Evolution and emergence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2024Review
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- Mycobacterium smegmatis: The Vanguard of Mycobacterial Research.Journal of bacteriology · 2023Review
- Protoplast fusion in Bacillus species produces frequent, unbiased, genome-wide homologous recombination.Nucleic acids research · 2022Article
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- The Flp type IV pilus operon ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Article
- Intercellular communication and social behaviors in mycobacteria.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Genome reorganization during emergence of host-associatedMicrobial genomics · 2021Article
- Type VII secretion systems: structure, functions and transport models.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2021Review
- ESX-1-Independent Horizontal Gene Transfer by Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Strains.mBio · 2021Article
- Pathogenic Determinants of theMicroorganisms · 2021Article
- Direct PCR on Tissue Samples To Detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex: an Alternative to the Bacteriological Culture.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2021Article
- Structural insights into substrate recognition by the type VII secretion system.Protein & cell · 2020Article
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- Extended insight into the Mycobacterium chelonae-abscessus complex through whole genome sequencing of Mycobacterium salmoniphilum outbreak and Mycobacterium salmoniphilum-like strains.Scientific reports · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in bacteria generates variation and drives evolution, and conjugation is considered a major contributor as it can mediate transfer of large segments of DNA between strains and species. We previously described a novel form of chromosomal conjugation in mycobacteria that does not conform to classic oriT-based conjugation models, and whose potential evolutionary significance has not been evaluated. Here, we determined the genome sequences of 22 F1-generation transconjugants, providing the first genome-wide view of conjugal HGT in bacteria at the nucleotide level. Remarkably, mycobacterial recipients acquired multiple, large, unlinked segments of donor DNA, far exceeding expectations for any bacterial HGT event. Consequently, conjugal DNA transfer created extensive genome-wide mosaicism within individual transconjugants, which generated large-scale sibling diversity approaching that seen in meiotic recombination. We exploited these attributes to perform genome-wide mapping and introgression analyses to map a locus that determines conjugal mating identity in M. smegmatis. Distributive conjugal transfer offers a plausible mechanism for the predicted HGT events that created the genome mosaicism observed among extant Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium canettii species. Mycobacterial distributive conjugal transfer permits innovative genetic approaches to map phenotypic traits and confers the evolutionary benefits of sexual reproduction in an asexual organism.
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