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The distribution of plasmid fitness effects explains plasmid persistence in bacterial communities

Alonso-del Valle, A.; Leon-Sampedro, R.; Rodriguez-Beltran, J.; DelaFuente, J.; Hernandez-Garcia, M.; Ruiz-Garbajosa, P.; Canton, R.; Pena-Miller, R.; San Millan, A.

2020-08-02 microbiology
10.1101/2020.08.01.230672 bioRxiv
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Introductory paragraphPlasmid persistence in bacterial populations is strongly influenced by the fitness effects associated with plasmid carriage. However, plasmid fitness effects in wild-type bacterial hosts remain largely unexplored. In this study, we determined the distribution of fitness effects (DFE) for the major antibiotic resistance plasmid pOXA-48 in wild-type, ecologically compatible enterobacterial isolates from the human gut microbiota. Our results show that although pOXA-48 produced an overall reduction in bacterial fitness, the DFE was dominated by quasi-neutral effects, and beneficial effects were observed in several isolates. Incorporating these data into a simple population dynamics model revealed a new set of conditions for plasmid stability in bacterial communities, with plasmid persistence increasing with bacterial diversity and becoming less dependent on conjugation. Moreover, genomic results showed a link between plasmid fitness effects and bacterial phylogeny, helping to explain pOXA-48 epidemiology. Our results provide a simple and general explanation for plasmid persistence in natural bacterial communities.

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