| Autor: |
Don B. Clewell, Gary M. Dunny |
| Rok vydání: |
2014 |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
The Enterococci |
| DOI: |
10.1128/9781555817923.ch7 |
| Popis: |
The medical importance of the enterococci is closely related to the propensity of these organisms to participate in the horizontal transfer of determinants for antibiotic resistance and virulence. Conjugative plasmids in enterococci tend to fall into two main groups. Members of one group encode recognition of recipient-produced peptide pheromones that initiate the mating process; the others do not make use of such signals. The pheromone-responding plasmids usually transfer efficiently in broth (liquid) matings, whereas the others transfer relatively poorly under these conditions. An exception is pMGl, a resistance plasmid in Enterococcus faecium that transfers well in broth despite the apparent absence of a pheromone system. Those plasmids that make use of sex pheromones (e.g., pADl and pCFlO) thus far appear to exhibit a narrow host range—primarily Enterococcus faecalis and closely related species-although information on this point is very limited. A partial list of pheromone-responding plasmids is presented in this chapter. The formation of mating aggregates relates to the induction of a protein "aggregation substance" (AS), which appears extensively over the donor surface and binds to "enterococcal binding substance" (EBS) on the recipient surface. Conjugative transposons are particularly common in enterococci and streptococci and play an important role in the dissemination of antibiotic resistance in these organisms. It is likely that the enterococci play a significant role as a hardy facultative reservoir of genetic information available to a variety of other genera. |
| Databáze: |
OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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