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Adenosine Monophosphate Affects Competence Development and Plasmid DNA Transformation in Escherichia coli

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Abstract

Artificial plasmid DNA transformation of Escherichia coli induced by calcium chloride is a routine technique in molecular biology and genetic engineering processes, but its mechanism has remained elusive. Because adenosine monophosphate (AMP) has been found to regulate natural transformation in Haemophilus influenza, we aimed to investigate the effects of AMP and its derivatives on E. coli transformation by treating competence with different concentrations of them. Analysis of the transformation efficiencies revealed that AMP inhibited the artificial plasmid DNA transformation of E. coli in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Furthermore, we found that AMP had no effect on the expression of the transformed gene but that the intracellular AMP level of the competent cells rose after a 6 h treatment. These results suggested that the intracellular AMP level had an important role in E. coli transformation. And these have useful implications for the further investigation of the mechanism of E. coli transformation.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 30971573 and 81072151), Distinguished Youth Foundation of Hubei Province of China (2012FFA019) and the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the NSFC (no. 20921062).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, People’s Republic of China

    Yan Zhang, Wenhua Li, Ping Shen & Zhixiong Xie

  2. College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, People’s Republic of China

    Liming Wang

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  1. Yan Zhang
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  2. Wenhua Li
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  3. Liming Wang
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  4. Ping Shen
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  5. Zhixiong Xie
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Correspondence to Wenhua Li.

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Zhang, Y., Li, W., Wang, L. et al. Adenosine Monophosphate Affects Competence Development and Plasmid DNA Transformation in Escherichia coli . Curr Microbiol 67, 550–556 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-013-0400-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-013-0400-z

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