Evolutionary model for the unequal segregation of high copy plasmids

PLoS Comput Biol. 2019 Mar 5;15(3):e1006724. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006724. eCollection 2019 Mar.

Abstract

Plasmids are extrachromosomal DNA elements of microorganisms encoding beneficial genetic information. They were thought to be equally distributed to daughter cells during cell division. Here we use mathematical modeling to investigate the evolutionary stability of plasmid segregation for high-copy plasmids-plasmids that are present in up to several hundred copies per cell-carrying antibiotic resistance genes. Evolutionary stable strategies (ESS) are determined by numerical analysis of a plasmid-load structured population model. The theory predicts that the evolutionary stable segregation strategy of a cell depends on the plasmid copy number: For low and medium plasmid load, both daughters receive in average an equal share of plasmids, while in case of high plasmid load, one daughter obtains distinctively and systematically more plasmids. These findings are in good agreement with recent experimental results. We discuss the interpretation and practical consequences.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biological Evolution*
  • Drug Resistance, Microbial / genetics
  • Models, Biological*
  • Plasmids*

Grants and funding

This research is supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grants JA470/12-2 (DJ) and MU2339/2-2 (JM) from the Priority Program 1617. URL: http://www.dfg.de/ This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in the framework of the Open Access Publishing Program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.