Interdomain Conjugal Transfer of DNA from Bacteria to Archaea

• DOI: 10.1128/aem.00967-10
• Publication Date: 2010-06-26T01:42:54Z
• Authors: Jeremy A. Dodsworth; Lei Li; Shiping Wei; Brian P. Hedlund; John A. Leigh; Paul de Figueiredo
• Keywords: DNA, Bacterial; 0301 basic medicine; Bacteria; Gene Transfer, Horizontal; Archaebacteria; Methanococcus; Genetic Vectors; Molecular Sequence Data; Conjugation (Biology); Methanococcus maripaludis; Gene Transfer Techniques; Life Sciences; Bacteriology; Genetics and Genomics; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Microbiology; 03 medical and health sciences; Genes, Bacterial; Conjugation, Genetic; Escherichia coli; Plasmids

ABSTRACT

Escherichia coli transforms the methanogenic archaeon Methanococcus maripaludis at frequencies ranging from 0.2 × 10 −6 to 2 × 10 −6 per recipient cell. Transformation requires cell-to-cell contact, oriT , and tra functions, is insensitive to DNase I, and otherwise displays hallmarks of conjugation.