IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/thpobi/v78y2010i4p278-288.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The early phase of a bacterial insertion sequence infection

Author

Listed:
  • Bichsel, Manuel
  • Barbour, Andrew D.
  • Wagner, Andreas

Abstract

Bacterial insertion sequences are the simplest form of autonomous mobile DNA. It is unknown whether they need to have beneficial effects to infect and persist in bacterial populations, or whether horizontal gene transfer suffices for their persistence. We address this question by using branching process models to investigate the critical, early phase of an insertion sequence infection. We find that the probability of a successful infection is low and depends linearly on the difference between the rate of horizontal gene transfer and the fitness cost of the insertion sequences. Our models show that the median time to extinction of an insertion sequence that dies out is very short, while the median time for a successful infection to reach a modest population size is very long. We conclude that horizontal gene transfer is strong enough to allow the persistence of insertion sequences, although infection is an erratic and slow process.

Suggested Citation

  • Bichsel, Manuel & Barbour, Andrew D. & Wagner, Andreas, 2010. "The early phase of a bacterial insertion sequence infection," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 78(4), pages 278-288.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:78:y:2010:i:4:p:278-288
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2010.08.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040580910000791
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tpb.2010.08.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Geoffroy, Félix & Uecker, Hildegard, 2023. "Limits to evolutionary rescue by conjugative plasmids," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 102-117.
    2. Tazzyman, Samuel J. & Bonhoeffer, Sebastian, 2013. "Fixation probability of mobile genetic elements such as plasmids," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 49-55.
    3. Startek, Michał & Le Rouzic, Arnaud & Capy, Pierre & Grzebelus, Dariusz & Gambin, Anna, 2013. "Genomic parasites or symbionts? Modeling the effects of environmental pressure on transposition activity in asexual populations," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 145-151.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:78:y:2010:i:4:p:278-288. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/intelligence .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.