A two-component system serves as a central hub for connecting energy metabolism and plasmid dissemination in bacteria
Tomoko Kubori- Virology
- Microbiology
ABSTRACT
Mobile genetic elements such as conjugative plasmids play a key role in the acquisition of antibiotic resistance by pathogenic bacteria. Resistance genes on plasmids can be transferred between bacteria using specialized conjugation machinery.
Acinetobacter baumannii
, the most common bacterium associated with nosocomial infections, harbors a large conjugative plasmid that encodes a type IV secretion system (T4SS). Feng et al. recently found that the
A. baumannii
T4SS is specialized for plasmid transfer, suggesting that it may be involved in multidrug resistance (Z. Feng, L. Wang, Q. Guan, X. Chu, and Z.-Q. Luo
,
mBio e02276-23, 2023,