FEMS Microbiology Ecology (2010) 73, 190-196

Holger Heuer, Jonas Ebers, Nicole Weinert and Kornelia Smalla (2010)
Variation in permissiveness for broad-host-range plasmids among genetically indistinguishable isolates of Dickeya sp. from a small field plot
FEMS Microbiology Ecology 73 (1), 190-196
Abstract: Phytopathogenic populations need genetic flexibility to adapt to continually improving plant defences. The gene pool transferred by broad-host-range plasmids provides genetic variation for the population. However, a population has to balance this benefit with the risk of acquiring deleterious foreign DNA. This could be achieved by modulating the ratio of individuals with high or low permissiveness to broad-host-range plasmids. We investigated whether plasmid uptake varied among genetically indistinguishable isolates of Dickeya sp. from a 400 m² field plot. The transfer frequencies of broad-host-range IncP-1 plasmids from Escherichia coli to Dickeya differed significantly among isolates. The transfer frequencies for plasmids pTH10 and pB10 of the divergent alpha- and ß-subgroups of IncP-1, respectively, correlated well. Strains that differed in permissiveness for these plasmids by orders of magnitude were not distinguishable by other phenotypic traits analysed, by genomic fingerprints or hrpN gene sequences. Such strains were isolated in close vicinity and from different plots of the field, indicating a reasonably fast genetic mechanism of switching between low and high permissiveness.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Holger Heuer

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
molecular biology - genes

---

Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Dickeya (genus)