Abstract
Most bacteria release extracellular vesicles (EVs). Recent studies have found these vesicles are capable of gene delivery, however the consequences of vesicle-mediated transfer on the patterns and rates of gene flow within microbial communities remains unclear. Previous studies have not determined the impact of both the genetic cargo and the donor and recipient species on the rate of vesicle-mediated gene exchange. This report examines the potential for EVs as a mechanism of gene transfer within heterogeneous microbial populations. EVs were harvested from three species of Gram-negative microbes carrying different plasmids. The dynamics of gene transfer into recipient species was measured. This study demonstrates that vesicles enable gene exchange between five species of Gram-negative bacteria, and that the identity of the genetic cargo, donor strain, and recipient strain all influence gene transfer rates. Each species released and acquired vesicles containing genetic material to a variable degree, and the transfer rate did not correlate with the relatedness of the donor and recipient species. The results suggest that EVs may be a general mechanism to exchange non-specialized genetic cargo between bacterial species.
Highlights
Microorganisms possess complex abilities to transfer genetic material through horizontal gene transfer (HGT), fundamentally shaping genetic landscapes and affecting biological functions[1,2,3,4]
Incorporation of bacterial plasmids into extracellular vesicles (EVs) has been previously observed[70,71,72,73], but it is unclear if plasmid characteristics influence packaging
The RK2 origin was originally isolated from Klebsiella aerogenes[76], and pMB1 was originally isolated form E. coli77. pZS2501 is a low-copy plasmid with the pSC101 origin[78], originally isolated from E. coli[79]
Summary
Microorganisms possess complex abilities to transfer genetic material through horizontal gene transfer (HGT), fundamentally shaping genetic landscapes and affecting biological functions[1,2,3,4]. Cell surface interactions with bacteriophages limit host specificity[7, 42,43,44,45] These known mechanisms enable gene flow within microbial ecosystems, these three mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer present barriers to gene exchange, e.g. limited genetic cargo in the case of conjugation, limited recipients in the case of transformation, and limited donor-recipient pairs in the case of transduction[20, 46]. We explore the hypothesis that vesicle-mediated gene transfer is able to package multiple types of genetic material and that the species involved determine the rate of interspecies gene exchange
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