Physical contacts between sparse biofilms promote plasmid transfer and generate functional novelty

Abstract

The horizontal transfer of plasmids is an important driver of microbial evolution, such as conferring antibiotic resistance (AR) to new genotypes. In biofilms, the abundance of cell-cell contacts promotes the frequent transfer of plasmids and their associated genes. In this study, we expand our knowledge about AR-encoding plasmids by investigating their transfer between discrete biofilms as the biofilms grow and physically collide with each other. Using an experimental system consisting of two fluorescently labelled Pseudomonas stutzeri strains and an Escherichia coli strain, we show that biofilm collisions promote plasmid transfer along the collision boundaries. The extent of plasmid transfer depends on the plasmid loss probability, the plasmid transfer probability, and the relative growth rates of plasmid-free and plasmid-carrying cells. We further show that the proliferation of plasmids after biofilm collision depends on the spatial positionings of plasmid-carrying cells along the collision boundary, thus establishing a link between the large-scale spatial distribution of discrete biofilms and the small-scale spatial arrangement of cells within individual biofilms. Our study reveals that plasmid transfer during biofilm collisions is determined by spatial factors operating at different organizational levels and length scales, expanding our understanding of the fate of plasmid-encoded traits in microbial communities.