Take the 2-minute tour ×  I liked the question about F' and R
plasmids.  What is a good resource that describes what is known
about the functions and diversity of plasmids in the wild?
Prokaryotes or eukaryotes?  Wikipedia points to five kinds of
plasmids (fertility (F), resistance (R), col plasmids (offensive
genes that let a bacteria kill other bacteria), degradative
function plasmids, and virulence plasmids). There is a brief
section on yeast/euk plasmids too. It seems like plasmids could
actually convey nearly any gene. Restriction enzymes are found
mostly on plasmids and they would seem to be defensive - maybe
those are degradative.  Are there references that are more
detailed and nuanced?  share|improve this question  1 Answer 1
up vote 7 down vote accepted  Not sure if generalized plasmid
taxonomy is going to be relevant any longer. A lot of these old
names were created before the exact sequence and function of the
various DNA sequences were known. This is becoming especially
true as synthetic biology