Natural transformation (NT) is a major mechanism of horizontal gene transfer in microbial species that promotes the spread of antibiotic-resistance determinants and virulence factors. Here, we develop a cell biological approach to characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics of homologous recombination during NT in Vibrio cholerae. Our results directly demonstrate (1) that transforming DNA efficiently integrates into the genome as single-stranded DNA, (2) that the resulting heteroduplexes are resolved by chromosome replication and segregation, and (3) that integrated DNA is rapidly expressed prior to cell division. We show that the combination of these properties results in the nongenetic transfer of gene products within transformed populations, which can support phenotypic inheritance of antibiotic resistance in both V. cholerae and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Thus, beyond the genetic acquisition of novel DNA sequences, NT can also promote the nongenetic inheritance of traits during this conserved mechanism of horizontal gene transfer.

中文翻译：

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自然转化过程中DNA整合的时空分析揭示了细菌的非遗传遗传模式。

自然转化（NT）是微生物物种中水平基因转移的主要机制，可促进抗生素抗性决定簇和毒力因子的扩散。在这里，我们开发了一种细胞生物学方法来表征霍乱弧菌在NT中同源重组的时空动态。我们的结果直接证明（1）转化的DNA以单链DNA的形式有效地整合到了基因组中；（2）产生的异源双链体通过染色体复制和分离而得以分离；（3）整合的DNA在细胞分裂之前迅速表达。 。我们表明，这些特性的组合导致转化人群中基因产物的非遗传转移，这可以在两个V中支持抗生素抗性的表型遗传。霍乱和肺炎链球菌。因此，除了从遗传上获取新的DNA序列外，在这种水平基因转移的保守机制中，NT还可以促进性状的非遗传遗传。