Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
2
pubmed:dateCreated
2007-1-23
pubmed:abstractText
Horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes carried by conjugative plasmids poses a serious health problem. As conjugative relaxases are transported to recipient cells during bacterial conjugation, we investigated whether blocking relaxase activity in the recipient cell might inhibit conjugation. For that purpose, we used an intrabody approach generating a single-chain Fv antibody library against the relaxase TrwC of conjugative plasmid R388. Recombinant single-chain Fv antibodies were engineered for cytoplasmic expression in Escherichia coli cells and either selected in vitro for their specific binding to TrwC, or in vivo by their ability to interfere with conjugation using a high-throughput mating assay. Several intrabody clones were identified showing specific inhibition against R388 conjugation upon cytoplasmic expression in the recipient cell. The epitope recognized by one of these intrabodies was mapped to a region of TrwC containing Tyr-26 and involved in the conjugative DNA-processing termination reaction. These findings demonstrate that the transferred relaxase plays an important role in the recipient cell and open a new approach to identify specific inhibitors of bacterial conjugation.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Jan
pubmed:issn
0950-382X
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
63
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
404-16
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2007
pubmed:articleTitle
Conjugative transfer can be inhibited by blocking relaxase activity within recipient cells with intrabodies.
pubmed:affiliation
Departamento de Biología Molecular (Laboratorio asociado al Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, C.S.I.C.), Universidad de Cantabria, C/Cardenal Herrera Oria s/n, 39011 Santander, Spain.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't