Variability of plasmid fitness effects contributes to plasmid persistence in bacterial communities

Aida Alonso-del Valle, Ricardo León-Sampedro, Jerónimo Rodríguez-Beltrán, Javier DelaFuente, Marta Hernández-García, Patricia Ruiz-Garbajosa, Rafael Cantón, Rafael Peña-Miller () and Alvaro San Millán ()
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Aida Alonso-del Valle: Servicio de Microbiología. Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal and Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria
Ricardo León-Sampedro: Servicio de Microbiología. Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal and Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria
Jerónimo Rodríguez-Beltrán: Servicio de Microbiología. Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal and Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria
Javier DelaFuente: Servicio de Microbiología. Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal and Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria
Marta Hernández-García: Servicio de Microbiología. Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal and Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria
Patricia Ruiz-Garbajosa: Servicio de Microbiología. Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal and Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria
Rafael Cantón: Servicio de Microbiología. Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal and Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria
Rafael Peña-Miller: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Alvaro San Millán: Servicio de Microbiología. Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal and Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Plasmid persistence in bacterial populations is strongly influenced by the fitness effects associated with plasmid carriage. However, plasmid fitness effects in wild-type bacterial hosts remain largely unexplored. In this study, we determined the fitness effects of the major antibiotic resistance plasmid pOXA-48_K8 in wild-type, ecologically compatible enterobacterial isolates from the human gut microbiota. Our results show that although pOXA-48_K8 produced an overall reduction in bacterial fitness, it produced small effects in most bacterial hosts, and even beneficial effects in several isolates. Moreover, genomic results showed a link between pOXA-48_K8 fitness effects and bacterial phylogeny, helping to explain plasmid epidemiology. Incorporating our fitness results into a simple population dynamics model revealed a new set of conditions for plasmid stability in bacterial communities, with plasmid persistence increasing with bacterial diversity and becoming less dependent on conjugation. These results help to explain the high prevalence of plasmids in the greatly diverse natural microbial communities.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22849-y

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