Electro-conjugation between Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis and between Agrobacterium rhizogenes R1601 and Sinorhizobium meliloti

Abstract

Bacterial conjugations represent one of the possibilities to produce transformed bacteria. This study aimed to detect the occurrence of conjugation between the pathogenic bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae and Proteus mirabilis and between Agrobacterium rhizogenes R1601 and Sinorhizobium meliloti. The results proved the conjugation in those bacterial parents through the sensitivity of bacterial species to specific types of antibiotics. The obtained data reported the stimulation of their growth when exposed to different electrical pulses. These electrotreatments include three voltages (200, 250, 300) volts of interval (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 10.0, 20.0) msec. for each voltage .These treatments increase colonies numbers more than 50% which grown on the surface of the specific solid medium .The interesting results of this study are that pre-exposure of each type of bacteria and the exposure of the conjugation mixture to the above mentioned electrotreatments increase the transconjugant colonies at ratio (30-70)% and increased the conjugation frequency twice. This may be the key to enhance conjugation between those species of bacteria not enable or difficult for conjugation.