%0 Journal Article
%T Competent but complex communication: The phenomena of pheromone-responsive plasmids
%A Amy J. Sterling
%A James S. G. Dooley
%A Nigel G. Ternan
%A Patrick J. Naughton
%A William J. Snelling
%J -
%D 2020
%R 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008310
%X Enterococci are robust gram-positive bacteria that are found in a variety of surroundings and that cause a significant number of healthcare-associated infections. The genus possesses a high-efficiency pheromone-responsive plasmid (PRP) transfer system for genetic exchange that allows antimicrobial-resistance determinants to spread within bacterial populations. The pCF10 plasmid system is the best characterised, and although other PRP systems are structurally similar, they lack exact functional homologues of pCF10-encoded genes. In this review, we provide an overview of the enterococcal PRP systems, incorporating functional details for the less-well-defined systems. We catalogue the virulence-associated elements of the PRPs that have been identified to date, and we argue that this reinforces the requirement for elucidation of the less studied systems
%K Enterococcus faecalis
%K Pheromones
%K Enterococcus
%K Antibiotic resistance
%K Enterococcus infections
%K Lipoproteins
%K Bacteriocins
%K Plasmids
%U https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1008310