Detection of Horizontal Gene Transfer Mediated by Natural Conjugative Plasmids in E. coliLuis Mota-Bravo 1, Manel Camps 2, Iván Muñoz-Gutiérrez 1, Andrey Tatarenkov 1, Caison Warner 2, Isabel Suarez 1, Gerardo Cortés-Cortés 2
1School of Biological Sciences, University of California Irvine, 2Department of Microbiology & Environmental Toxicology, University of California Santa Cruz
Conjugation mediates horizontal gene transfer by mobilizing plasmid DNA across two different cells, facilitating the spread of beneficial genes. This work describes a widely-used method for the efficient detection of conjugative plasmid transfer, based on the use of differential markers in the conjugative plasmid, donor, and recipient to detect transconjugation.
