This is a question regarding transposon evolution. Say, for example,
you have a bacterium that has resistance to 4 antibiotics in the
genome. Each of these markers was transduced in from bacteria that had
the transposons. One can reasonably be certain that the whole
transposon didn't get in with transduction. All of the plasmids are
removed(acridine orange) and a new plasmid, with an insertion sequence,
is introduced. The cells are grown in a chemostat, plasmid isolated,
and transformed in E.coli looking for resistance to one of the 4
antibiotics. What may be going on here?
