Plasmid Effects on Escherichia coli Metabolism.

JUAN C. DIAZ RICCI; MARÍA EUGENIA HERNANDEZ

CRITICAL REVIEWS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY

CRC Press LLC

Lugar: Ontario, Canada; Año: 2000 vol. 20 p. 79 - 108

0738-8551

ABSTRACT: The idea that plasmids replicate within hosts at the expense of cell metabolic energy and preformed cellular blocks depicts p1asmids as a kind of molecular parasites that, even when they may eventually provide plasmid-carrying strains with growth advantages over plasmid-free strains, doom hosts to bear an unavoidable metabolic burden. Due to the consistency with experimental data, this idea was rapidly adopted and used as a basis of different hypotheses to explain plasm id-host interactions. In this article we critically discuss current ideas about plasmid effects on host metabolism, and present evidence suggesting that the complex interaction between plasmids and hosts is related to the alteration of the cellular regulato ry status .