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CONJUGAL TRANSFER AT NATURAL POPULATION DENSITIES IN A MICROCOSM SIMULATING AN ESTUARINE ENVIRONMENT
Citation:
Barkay, T., N. Kroer, S. Sorensen, AND L. Rasmussen. CONJUGAL TRANSFER AT NATURAL POPULATION DENSITIES IN A MICROCOSM SIMULATING AN ESTUARINE ENVIRONMENT. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-95/171, 1995.
Description:
Estuarine microcosms were used to follow conjugal transfer of a broad host range IncP1 plasmid from a Pseudomonas putida donor to indigenous bacteria. onor cells were added at a concentration similar to the natural abundance of bacteria in the water column (10 6/mi). ransfer was not detected in any of the test microcosms (calculated limit of detection of 10-7 and 10-4 transconjugants/ donor in water column and sediment, respectively), with the exception of transfer to an isogenic recipient (added at 10 5/ml) in sediments of controls that had been inoculated with both donors and recipients. he same plasmid was transferred with high efficiencies (10-1 to 10-3) to a variety of recipients in filter and broth matings. hese results suggest that if conjugal gene transfer occurred it was at efficiencies that were not detectable in estuarine microcosms simulating natural population densities.