Importance of plasmid curing from industrial and microbiological point of view
Answers
it helps in the growth of the industry
Bacterial plasmids are known to harbor genes for resistances to antibiotics and metals; catabolic pathways such as lactose utilization and degradation of hydrocarbons; and biosynthesis of certain antibiotics. Curing of plasmids from bacteria strains is a way to eliminate the bacteria plasmid and determine the antibiotic resistance mediation. There are several methods involving chemical and physical agents that have been developed to eliminate plasmids. Protocols for plasmid curing in Vibrio consist of chemical agents such as acridine orange (AO), ethidium bromide (EB), and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), and physical agent (Liu et al., 2012) (Table 1). The mechanism of plasmid curing starts from the inhibition of plasmid replication resulted from a single nick, outside of the replication origo of the superhelical structure. The process leads to further relaxation of plasmid DNA, an increase in melting point and circular dichroism. The intercalating agents would then break the superhelical form of plasmid DNA subsequently forming an open circular or linear form plasmid DNA (Spengler et al., 2006). Resistance is usually classified as “chromosomal” when unaffected by plasmid curing and as “plasmidial” when affected.
