The large conjugative plasmid pAB3 integrates into the chromosome of Acinetobacter baumannii ATCC 17978
- 1University of East Anglia
Abstract
ATCC 17978 is one of the most utilised lab strains of Acinetobacter baumannii. Current literature suggests ATCC 17978 can have either a sulfamethoxazole-resistant phenotype or have the type VI secretion system (T6SS) switched on depending on the presence/absence of the large conjugative plasmid pAB3, which encodes the antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) sul2 and T6SS repressors tetR1/tetR2. Here, we show that pAB3 integrates into the ATCC 17978 chromosome, which enables a large inversion resulting in the chromosomal arrangement labelled GS2.24 by Socru. This integration has no transcriptional impact on nearby genes or tetR1/tetR2. We find several instances were a portion of integrated pAB3 containing tetR2 is lost but the rest of the sequence, including sul2, is maintained, suggesting pAB3 integration may serve to make further rearrangements more tractable, enabling a putative T6SS+ sulfamethoxazole-resistant phenotype.
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BibTeX
@misc{neil2026large,
title = {{The large conjugative plasmid pAB3 integrates into the chromosome of Acinetobacter baumannii ATCC 17978}},
author = {M. Neil and G. Langridge and B. A. Evans},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.30.763009},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.30.763009v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The large conjugative plasmid pAB3 integrates into the chromosome of Acinetobacter baumannii ATCC 17978
AU - M. Neil
AU - G. Langridge
AU - B. A. Evans
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.30.763009
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.30.763009v1
AB - ATCC 17978 is one of the most utilised lab strains of Acinetobacter baumannii. Current literature suggests ATCC 17978 can have either a sulfamethoxazole-resistant phenotype or have the type VI secretion system (T6SS) switched on depending on the presence/absence of the large conjugative plasmid pAB3, which encodes the antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) sul2 and T6SS repressors tetR1/tetR2. Here, we show that pAB3 integrates into the ATCC 17978 chromosome, which enables a large inversion resulting in the chromosomal arrangement labelled GS2.24 by Socru. This integration has no transcriptional impact on nearby genes or tetR1/tetR2. We find several instances were a portion of integrated pAB3 containing tetR2 is lost but the rest of the sequence, including sul2, is maintained, suggesting pAB3 integration may serve to make further rearrangements more tractable, enabling a putative T6SS+ sulfamethoxazole-resistant phenotype.
ER -