Direct monitoring of gene transfer in the animal gut flora

Bacteria like E. coli and S. typhimurium colonize the gut of mammals by establishing in the mucus of the large intestine. The model system used is the streptomycin treated mouse in which streptomycin resistant strains of the two bacteria may be introduced stably. Plasmid transfer in situ is studied after introducing donor strains carrying either narrow-host-range or broad-host-range conjugative plasmids.
The major goal is to understand how genetic information is transferred in the bacterial ecosystem of the mammal gut, and to what extent selection pressure, properties of the donor, recipient and plasmid affect the transfer efficiency.