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Control of Plasmid Replication: Theoretical Considerations and Practical Solutions

  • Chapter
Plasmids in Bacteria

Abstract

The life cycle of bacterial plasmids involves 2 different processes, replication (rep) and partitioning (par). Both these processes have to be controlled in order to secure stable inheritance of a plasmid in a growing population of bacteria. The crucial genetic information for (control of) replication (21) and partitioning (31,41) is present on the plasmids themselves. The 2 processes seem to be independent of each other since deletion of thepar region of a plasmid does not affect the copy-number control although it results in unstable inheritance of the plasmid (41). Furthermore, thepar region of 1 plasmid can be replaced by that of another, giving totally stable inheritance and the same copy number as that of the initial replicon (42). A third system adds to the stability of inheritance of plasmids, theccd (control ofcelldivision) system that inhibits cell division in cells containing only 1 copy of the plasmid (45).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology Biomedical Center, Uppsala University, Box 581, S-751 23, Uppsala, Sweden

    Kurt Nordström

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  1. Kurt Nordström
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

    Donald R. Helinski

  2. Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

    Stanley N. Cohen

  3. University of Michigan, Ann Harbor, Michigan, USA

    Don B. Clewell

  4. Genex Corporation, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

    David A. Jackson

  5. Council for Research Planning in Biological Sciences, Inc., Washington, D.C., USA

    Alexander Hollaender

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© 1985 Plenum Press, New York

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Nordström, K. (1985). Control of Plasmid Replication: Theoretical Considerations and Practical Solutions. In: Helinski, D.R., Cohen, S.N., Clewell, D.B., Jackson, D.A., Hollaender, A. (eds) Plasmids in Bacteria. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2447-8_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2447-8_17

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