Department of Chemistry, Kenan Laboratories, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3290, USA.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2012 Aug 10;424(4):697-703. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2012.07.012. Epub 2012 Jul 13.
Bacterial plasmids propagate through microbial populations via the directed process of conjugative plasmid transfer (CPT). Because conjugative plasmids often encode antibiotic resistance genes and virulence factors, several approaches to inhibit CPT have been described. Bisphosphonates and structurally related compounds (BSRCs) were previously reported to disrupt conjugative transfer of the F (fertility) plasmid in Escherichia coli. We have further investigated the effect of these compounds on the transfer of two additional conjugative plasmids, pCU1 and R100, between E. coli cells. The impact of BSRCs on E. coli survival and plasmid transfer was found to be dependent on the plasmid type, the length of time the E. coli were exposed to the compounds, and the ratio of plasmid donor to plasmid recipient cells. Therefore, these data indicate that BSRCs produce a range of effects on the conjugative transfer of bacterial plasmids in E. coli. Since their impact appears to be plasmid type-dependent, BSRCs are unlikely to be applicable as broad inhibitors of antibiotic resistance propagation.
细菌质粒通过共轭质粒转移（CPT）的定向过程在微生物群体中繁殖。由于共轭质粒通常编码抗生素抗性基因和毒力因子，因此已经描述了几种抑制 CPT 的方法。双膦酸盐和结构相关的化合物（BSRCs）先前被报道可破坏大肠杆菌中 F（生育力）质粒的共轭转移。我们进一步研究了这些化合物对大肠杆菌细胞之间另外两种共轭质粒 pCU1 和 R100 转移的影响。发现 BSRC 对大肠杆菌存活和质粒转移的影响取决于质粒类型、大肠杆菌暴露于化合物的时间长短以及质粒供体与质粒受体细胞的比例。因此，这些数据表明，BSRC 对大肠杆菌中细菌质粒的共轭转移产生了一系列影响。由于它们的影响似乎取决于质粒类型，因此 BSRC 不太可能作为抗生素抗性传播的广泛抑制剂。
