Transgenes and antibiotic resistance marker genes from transgenic plants have been shown to end up in soil fungi and bacteria. The microbial populations in the environment serve as the gene-transfer highway and reservoir, supporting the replication of the genes and allowing them to spread and recombine with other genes to generate new pathogens. We have been assured that 'crippled' laboratory strains of bacteria and viruses do not survive when released into the environment. That is not true. There is now abundant evidence that they can either survive quite well and multiply, or they can go dormant and reappear after having acquired genes from other bacteria to enable them to multiply.
Bacteria cooperate much more than they compete.
They share their most valuable assets for survival. We have been told that DNA is easily broken down in the environment. DNA can remain in the environment where they can be picked up by bacteria and incorporated into their genome. DNA is, in fact, one of the toughest molecules. Biochemists jumped with joy when they didn't have to work with proteins anymore, which lose their activity very readily.