Degradative plasmids of gram-negative bacteria

The review sumarizes up-to-date information on majority of published degrad ative plasmids found in Gram-negative bacteria. Different plasmids are comp ared which code for similar or identical properties, that may, however, dif fer in many features such a size, conjugative properties, stability and num ber and properties of coded enzymatic activities, metabolic pathways of deg raded chemicals are also discussed. The history of research on bacterial de gradative plasmids is also briefly described.