Community context influences the conjugation efficiency of E. coli

Abstract

In urinary tract infections different bacteria can live in a polymicrobial community, it is unknown how such community members affect the conjugation rate of uropathogenic Escherichia coli. We investigated the influence of the polymicrobial urinary tract infection (UTI) community context on the conjugation rate of E. coli isolates in artificial urine medium. Pairwise conjugation rate experiments were conducted between a donor E. coli strain containing pOXA-48 and six uropathogenic E. coli isolates in the presence and absence of five community members to elucidate their effect on the rate of conjugation. We found that the basal conjugation rates in the absence of community members are genotype dependent. Interestingly, bacterial interactions have an overall positive effect on E. coli conjugation rates. Particularly Gram-positive enterococcal species were found to enhance the conjugation rates of most uropathogenic E. coli isolates. We hypothesize that the nature and co-culture of the interactions is important for these increased conjugation rates in AUM.