Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Microorganisms, Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Rio de Janeiro, 21040-900, Brazil.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2022 Apr 7;369(1). doi: 10.1093/femsle/fnac035.
Conjugation is considered the main horizontal gene transfer mechanism in bacterial adaptation and evolution. In the Mycobacteriaceae family, Mycolicibacterium smegmatis has been used as the model organism for the conjugative transfer of hybrid plasmids. However, the natural conjugation process in any bacteria would involve the transfer of naturally occurring plasmids. Currently, there is a gap in this regard about this abundant environmental genus of Mycobacteriaceae. Here, we performed conjugation experiments between wild Mycolicibacterium sp. strains involving naturally occurring plasmids, and interestingly, evidence of conjugative transfer was obtained. Thus, it is likely that conjugation occurs in Mycolicibacterium in the natural environment, representing a source of diversification and evolution in this genus of bacteria.
结合被认为是细菌适应和进化的主要水平基因转移机制。在分枝杆菌科中，耻垢分枝杆菌已被用作杂交质粒接合转移的模式生物。然而，任何细菌中的自然接合过程都将涉及天然存在的质粒的转移。目前，关于分枝杆菌科这个丰富的环境属，在这方面存在空白。在这里，我们在涉及天然存在的质粒的野生分枝杆菌属菌株之间进行了接合实验，有趣的是，获得了接合转移的证据。因此，在自然环境中分枝杆菌中可能发生接合，这代表了该细菌属多样化和进化的来源。
