Conjugative transfer of bacterial plasmids is the most efficient way of horizontal gene spread, and it is therefore considered one of the major reasons for the increase in the number of bacteria exhibiting multiple-antibiotic resistance. Thus, conjugation and spread of antibiotic resistance represents a severe problem in antibiotic treatment, especially of immunosuppressed patients and in intensive care units. While conjugation in gram-negative bacteria has been studied in great detail over the last decades, the transfer mechanisms of antibiotic resistance plasmids in gram-positive bacteria remained obscure. In the last few years, the entire nucleotide sequences of several large conjugative plasmids from gram-positive bacteria have been determined. Sequence analyses and data bank comparisons of their putative transfer (tra) regions have revealed significant similarities to tra regions of plasmids from gram-negative bacteria with regard to the respective DNA relaxases and their targets, the origins of transfer (oriT), and putative nucleoside triphosphatases NTP-ases with homologies to type IV secretion systems. In contrast, a single gene encoding a septal DNA translocator protein is involved in plasmid transfer between micelle-forming streptomycetes. Based on these clues, we propose the existence of two fundamentally different plasmid-mediated conjugative mechanisms in gram-positive microorganisms, namely, the mechanism taking place in unicellular gram-positive bacteria, which is functionally similar to that in gram-negative bacteria, and a second type that occurs in multicellular gram-positive bacteria, which seems to be characterized by double-stranded DNA transfer

Summary Type IV secretion systems (T4SSs) are versatile multiprotein nanomachines spanning the entire cell envelope in Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacteria. They play important roles through the contact‐dependent secretion of effector molecules into eukaryotic hosts and conjugative transfer of mobile DNA elements as well as contact‐independent exchange of DNA with the extracellular milieu. In the last few years, many details on the molecular mechanisms of T4SSs have been elucidated. Exciting structures of T4SS complexes from Escherichia coli plasmids R388 and pKM101, Helicobacter pylori and Legionella pneumophila have been solved. The structure of the F‐pilus was also reported and surprisingly revealed a filament composed of pilin subunits in 1:1 stoichiometry with phospholipid molecules. Many new T4SSs have been identified and characterized, underscoring the structural and functional diversity of this secretion superfamily. Complex regulatory circuits also have been shown to control T4SS machine production in response to host cell physiological status or a quorum of bacterial recipient cells in the vicinity. Here, we summarize recent advances in our knowledge of ‘paradigmatic’ and emerging systems, and further explore how new basic insights are aiding in the design of strategies aimed at suppressing T4SS functions in bacterial infections and spread of antimicrobial resistances.

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Conjugative plasmid transfer is one of the most important mechanisms for the spread of antibiotic resistance genes and thereby the emergence of multiple resistant pathogenic bacteria. pIP501 is a 30,599-bp plasmid with the broadest known host range for a conjugative plasmid originating from grampositive (Gϩ) bacteria. pIP501 can self-transfer to a variety of Gϩ bacteria, including pathogens and nosocomial pathogens such as streptococci, staphylococci, enterococci, listeria, multicellular Streptomyces lividans, and also to gram-negative (GϪ) Escherichia coli (32). The pIP501 tra region is organized in an operon comprising almost half of the plasmid genome. It bears 15 genes, all of which are putatively involved in conjugative plasmid transfer. Cotranscription of all 15 tra genes was shown by reverse transcription-PCR in Enterococcus faecalis JH2-2 (33). The tra genes are transcribed throughout the growth cycle of E. faecalis, and their expression level remains constant independent of the growth phase. The pIP501 tra operon is negatively autoregulated at the transcriptional level by the first gene product of the operon, the TraA relaxase (33). The TraA relaxase was biochemically characterized as the enzyme attacking a specific dinucleotide within oriT, thereby initiating the directed transfer of the plasmid single strand to the recipient. The TraA relaxase and its amino-terminal relaxase domain TraAN 246 (the first 246 amino-terminal amino acids) were shown to bind to oriT and to the tra operon promoter, P tra , which partially overlaps with oriT (30, 33).

Irrigation with wastewater releases pharmaceuticals, pathogenic bacteria, and resistance genes, but little is known about the accumulation of these contaminants in the environment when wastewater is applied for decades. We sampled a chronosequence of soils that were variously irrigated with wastewater from zero up to 100 years in the Mezquital Valley, Mexico, and investigated the accumulation of ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, clarithromycin, carbamazepine, bezafibrate, naproxen, diclofenac, as well as the occurrence of Enterococcus spp., and sul and qnr resistance genes. Total concentrations of ciprofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, and carbamazepine increased with irrigation duration reaching 95% of their upper limit of 1.4 µg/kg (ciprofloxacin), 4.3 µg/kg (sulfamethoxazole), and 5.4 µg/kg (carbamazepine) in soils irrigated for 19–28 years. Accumulation was soil-type-specific, with largest accumulation rates in Leptosols and no time-trend in Vertisols. Acidic pharmaceuticals (diclofenac, naproxen, bezafibrate) were not retained and thus did not accumulate in soils. We did not detect qnrA genes, but qnrS and qnrB genes were found in two of the irrigated soils. Relative concentrations of sul1 genes in irrigated soils were two orders of magnitude larger (3.15×10−3±0.22×10−3 copies/16S rDNA) than in non-irrigated soils (4.35×10−5±1.00×10−5 copies/16S rDNA), while those of sul2 exceeded the ones in non-irrigated soils still by a factor of 22 (6.61×10–4±0.59×10−4 versus 2.99×10−5±0.26×10−5 copies/16S rDNA). Absolute numbers of sul genes continued to increase with prolonging irrigation together with Enterococcus spp. 23S rDNA and total 16S rDNA contents. Increasing total concentrations of antibiotics in soil are not accompanied by increasing relative abundances of resistance genes. Nevertheless, wastewater irrigation enlarges the absolute concentration of resistance genes in soils due to a long-term increase in total microbial biomass.

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Background: Conjugative plasmid transfer is the prevalent means for spreading antibiotic resistance genes among bacteria.Results: Surface exposure of transfer protein TraM from the Gram-positive (G+) plasmid pIP501 was confirmed, and its crystal structure was solved.Conclusion: Structural relations to type IV secretion (T4S) proteins provide a novel classification scheme.Significance: The novel classification will help elucidate structure-function relationships in G+ T4S systems.

HighlightsThe conjugative transfer mechanism of broad-host-range, Enterococcus sex pheromone and Clostridium plasmids is reviewed.Comparisons with Gram-negative type IV secretion systems are presented.The current understanding of the unique Streptomyces double stranded DNA transfer mechanism is reviewed.