Plasmids are key vehicles of horizontal gene transfer (HGT), mobilizing antibiotic resistance, virulence, and other traits among bacterial populations. The environmental and genetic forces that drive plasmid transfer are poorly understood, however, due to the lack of definitive quantification coupled with genomic analysis. Here, we integrate conjugative phenotype with plasmid genotype to provide quantitative analysis of HGT in clinical Escherichia coli pathogens. We find a substantial proportion of these pathogens (>25%) able to readily spread resistance to the most common classes of antibiotics. Antibiotics of varied modes of action had less than a 5-fold effect on conjugation efficiency in general, with one exception displaying 31-fold promotion upon exposure to macrolides and chloramphenicol. In contrast, genome sequencing reveals plasmid incompatibility group strongly correlates with transfer efficiency. Our findings offer new insights into the determinants of plasmid mobility and have implications for the development of treatments that target HGT.

中文翻译：

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致病性大肠杆菌中质粒迁移性的环境和遗传决定因素。


质粒是水平基因转移（HGT）的关键载体，可以调动细菌群体的抗生素抗性、毒力和其他特征。然而，由于缺乏明确的定量和基因组分析，人们对驱动质粒转移的环境和遗传力量知之甚少。在这里，我们将接合表型与质粒基因型相结合，以提供临床大肠杆菌病原体中 HGT 的定量分析。我们发现这些病原体中很大一部分 (>25%) 能够轻易传播对最常见抗生素类别的耐药性。一般来说，不同作用方式的抗生素对结合效率的影响不到 5 倍，但有一种例外，在接触大环内酯类和氯霉素后，其结合效率提高了 31 倍。相反，基因组测序显示质粒不相容组与转移效率密切相关。我们的研究结果为质粒迁移性的决定因素提供了新的见解，并对针对 HGT 的治疗方法的开发具有影响。