Research Article
Vehicles, Replicators, and Intercellular Movement of Genetic Information: Evolutionary Dissection of a Bacterial Cell
Table 1
Classification of replicators.
| Class | Example replicators | Vertical dependency | Horizontal movement potential | Description of average phenotypes |
| I | Prokaryotic chromosomes | Completely dependent | No potential | Encodes the main functional units of all cell vehicles. Required for the binary fission of the cell vehicle. |
| II | Plasmids, transposons | Highly dependent | Passive | Low reproductive cost to host cell vehicle. Can encode opportunistically useful phenotypic traits. |
| III | Conjugative plasmids, integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) | Moderately dependent (always requires a cell vehicle) | Active without an extracellular stage | Moderate or low reproductive cost to host cell vehicle. Usually encode opportunistically useful phenotypic traits. |
| IV | Temperate viruses | Somewhat dependent (can survive even if the cell-vehicle terminates) | Active with an extracellular stage | Moderate or low reproductive cost to host cell vehicle. Sometimes encode opportunistically useful phenotypic traits. |
| V | Virulent viruses | Not dependent | Active with an extracellular stage | Insurmountable reproductive cost that terminates the host cell vehicle. Does not encode cell-vehicle benefitting traits. |
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