Dual-Species Biofilms: Biomass, Viable Cell Ratio/Cross-Species Interactions, Conjugative Transfer.

Biofilms as a form of adaptation are beneficial for bacterial survival and may be hot spots for horizontal gene transfer, including conjugation. The aim of this research was to characterize the biofilm biomass, viable cell ratios and conjugative transfer of the pOX38 plasmid, an F-plasmid derivative, from the N4i pOX38 strain (donor) into a uropathogenic DL82 strain (recipient) within dual-species biofilms with one of the following opportunistic pathogenic bacteria: , or . Dual-species biofilms of with or but not were more massive and possessed more exopolysaccharide matrix compared to single-species biofilms of donor and recipient cells.

The effect of ŽP strain with a conjugation-based colicin E7 delivery on growth performance, hematological, biochemical, and histological parameters, gut microbiota, and nonspecific immunity of broilers.

The  ŽP strain (ŽP) was constructed based on the known probiotic  strain Nissle 1917. It was genetically modified to carry the colicin E7 synthesis gene encoding DNase on a conjugative plasmid and the colicin E7 immunity gene in the chromosome. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the daily ŽP per oral administration (5 × 10 or 5 × 10 CFU per bird) on the growth performance, hematological, biochemical, histological parameters, gut microbiota, and nonspecific immunity of the 4-24 days old broilers.

Differences in recipient ability of uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains in relation with their pathogenic potential.

Conjugation is recognized as a mechanism driving dissemination of antibacterial resistances and virulence factors among bacteria. In the presented work conjugative transfer frequency into clinical uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains (UPEC) isolated from patients with symptomatic urinary tract infections was investigated. From 93 obtained UPEC strains only 29 were suitable for conjugation experiments with the plasmid pOX38, a well-known F-plasmid derivative.