Plasmids transfer at highly variable rates that spread over 10 orders of magnitude. While rates have been measured for decades and it is known that the rates are affected bysome biotic and abiotic factors, it is unclear how and to what extent these factors determine the rates of transfer. We performed a meta-analysis of 1224 published transfer rates from 33 papers (filtered to 612 transfer rates) to assess this variation. Over three quarters of the variation can be predicted, with plasmid repression and media type (solid versus liquid) identified as general variables explaining the most variation. Of the host and plasmid identities, identity of the recipient bacterium explained the most variation, up to 34% in some models, and more than any other explanatory variable. These results emphasize the role of the recipient in determining the rate of transfer, and show an improved range of transfer values and their correlates that can be used in future when modeling plasmid persistence.

中文翻译：

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宿主，质粒和环境在确定质粒转移速率中的作用：荟萃分析。

质粒以高度可变的速率转移，扩散速率超过10个数量级。虽然已经对速率进行了数十年的测量，并且已知速率受某些生物和非生物因素的影响，但尚不清楚这些因素如何以及在多大程度上决定了传输速率。我们对33篇论文的1224种已发布的传输率（进行了过滤后得出612种传输率）进行了荟萃分析，以评估这种差异。可以预测超过四分之三的变异，质粒阻遏和培养基类型（固体与液体）被确定为解释最大变异的一般变量。在宿主和质粒的鉴定中，受体细菌的鉴定解释了最大的变异，在某些模型中高达34％，比任何其他解释变量都多。