Plasmid-driven strategies for clone success in Escherichia coli
- Author(s)
- Arredondo-Alonso, S; Pöntinen, AK; Gama, JA; Gladstone, RA; Harms, K; Tonkin-Hill, G; Thorpe, HA; Simonsen, GS; Samuelsen, Ø; Johnsen, PJ; Corander, J; Norwegian Ecoli BSI Study Group;
- Details
- Publication Year 2025-04-03,Volume 16,Issue #1,Page 2921
- Journal Title
- Nature Communications
- Publication Type
- Research article
- Abstract
- Escherichia coli is the most widely studied microbe in history, but the population structure and evolutionary trends of its extrachromosomal elements known as plasmids remain poorly delineated. Here we used long-read technology to high-resolution sequence the entire plasmidome and the corresponding host chromosomes from an unbiased longitudinal survey covering two decades and over 2000 E. coli isolates. We find that some plasmids have persisted in lineages even for centuries, demonstrating strong plasmid-lineage associations. Our analysis provides a detailed map of recent vertical and horizontal evolutionary events involving plasmids with key antibiotic resistance, competition and virulence determinants. We present genomic evidence of both chromosomal and plasmid-driven success strategies adopted by distant lineages by independently inheriting the same genomic elements. Further, we use in vitro experiments to verify the importance of key bacteriocin-producing plasmids for clone success. Our study has general implications for understanding plasmid biology and bacterial evolutionary strategies.
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Keywords
- *Plasmids/genetics; *Escherichia coli/genetics/classification/drug effects/pathogenicity; Evolution, Molecular; Genome, Bacterial; Phylogeny; Bacteriocins/genetics; Chromosomes, Bacterial/genetics
- Department(s)
- Laboratory Research
- Publisher's Version
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57940-1
- Open Access at Publisher's Site
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57940-1- Terms of Use/Rights Notice
- Refer to copyright notice on published article.
Creation Date: 2025-05-08 07:28:27
Last Modified: 2025-05-08 07:28:46