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Microbiology · Chapter 7

Anatomy of an R-Plasmid

A plasmid is a small ring of DNA that copies itself apart from the chromosome. Add a resistance gene and it becomes an R plasmid. Build one here, gene by gene. The ring grows to match, and each sector is sized by how much DNA that gene takes up. Then expose the cell to seven antibiotics and see what your ring can and cannot survive.

Your plasmid click a sector to drop that gene

R plasmid map

Reading the ring. Purple sectors are machinery that keeps the plasmid alive and moving. Colored sectors are resistance cargo. Sector width shows how much DNA the gene needs, so the transfer region is by far the largest piece.

Expose the cell to antibiotics

An empty ringpick some genes to build it
Plasmid size0 kb
Resistance genes0
Drugs survived0 / 7
Can it copy itself no
Can it move itself no
Cost of carrying it none
Multidrug resistant no
Resistance cargo
Plasmid machinery