Fig. 17

Simulation of BiSDL-compiled nwn-snakes models shows that the transfer of R plasmids from the Donor to the Transconjugant cells is consistent with the expected behavior. The Donor cell holds one R plasmid throughout the simulation (top left), while the Transconjugant cell starts with none (top right). The R plasmid in the Donor encodes for the Pilus protein, which initiates the conjugation process as soon as it is translated. The Pilus mediates two R plasmid transfer events, depicted as the presence of a linearized single-strand R plasmid within it (center), resulting in two subsequent increases of R plasmid copies in the Donor cell (top right). R plasmids encode for R protein, which provides antibiotic resistance. In the Donor cell, the R protein is present from the start due to the presence of the R plasmid (bottom left). Otherwise, protein levels rise above zero in the Transconjugant cell R only after the first R plasmid transfer event (bottom right). These results show that simulation recapitulates the plasmid-transfer conjugation process, causing the acquisition of R protein-mediated antibiotic resistance