AUTHOR=Meijer Wilfried J. J. , Boer D. Roeland , Ares Saúl , Alfonso Carlos , Rojo Fernando , Luque-Ortega Juan R. , Wu Ling Juan TITLE=Multiple Layered Control of the Conjugation Process of the Bacillus subtilis Plasmid pLS20 JOURNAL=Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences VOLUME=8 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-biosciences/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2021.648468 DOI=10.3389/fmolb.2021.648468 ISSN=2296-889X ABSTRACT=
Bacterial conjugation is the main horizontal gene transfer route responsible for the spread of antibiotic resistance, virulence and toxin genes. During conjugation, DNA is transferred from a donor to a recipient cell via a sophisticated channel connecting the two cells. Conjugation not only affects many different aspects of the plasmid and the host, ranging from the properties of the membrane and the cell surface of the donor, to other developmental processes such as competence, it probably also poses a burden on the donor cell due to the expression of the large number of genes involved in the conjugation process. Therefore, expression of the conjugation genes must be strictly controlled. Over the past decade, the regulation of the conjugation genes present on the conjugative