Simple question that is hard to answer

[hzhen]

Duncan Clark wrote:

> 
> I was always curious about the replicons used in some clinical E.coli's 
> that carry umpteen different plasmids. I remember many many years ago 
> that one such E.coli was used for plasmid markers and had may 10 
> different plasmids in it. They didn't appear to lose those plasmids 
> despite no selection. May have been published in "Plasmid" back in the 
> late 70's or early 80's.


It all depends on the replication control mechanism of the replicons I 
suppose.  ColE1 replicon is the standard one taught to students and I 
haven't really look into others, so I'm speaking in complete ignorance 
here, but there is no reason why a plasmid with different replicon would 
necessary result in plasmid incompatibility (because ColE1 has an 
unusual replication control mechanism?), although I understand that many 
would.



> Duncan