Characterizing the Genetic Determinants of Plasmid-Host Interactions

Plasmids shape microbial community diversity by transferring adaptive traits such as resistance, and metabolic capabilities to the microbial hosts. With an increase in sequencing data, plasmid genomes and host associations have become more accessible, but majorly defense genes involved in host compatibility have been identified. Similarly, gene annotation of accessory part of the genomes is a considerable task. To address these gaps, we generated plasmid-bacteria gene interaction networks to identify novel genes interacting between host and plasmid. Additionally, we utilized the co-occurrence frequency to annotate unclassified genes with similar biological functions. To this end, we examined about 6000 plasmid genomes paired with 2500 bacterial genomes in the NCBI nucleotide database to generate bacteria-plasmid networks at the gene level. By examining the plasmid-microbe interactions, this study will provide a mechanistic understanding of host compatibility and help to identify genes that can be targeted for microbiome editing.