This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ballester, S Articles by Lacks, S A Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ballester, S Articles by Lacks, S A

research-article

Plasmid structural instability associated with pC194 replication functions.

Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain.

ABSTRACT

The hybrid plasmid pJS37 is composed of the streptococcal plasmid pLS1, which confers tetracycline resistance, and the staphylococcal plasmid pC194, which confers chloramphenicol resistance. When gram-positive bacteria containing pJS37 were grown in the presence of chloramphenicol, four different deleted derivatives accumulated. The deletions in the plasmid enhanced resistance to chloramphenicol by placing the cat gene of pC194 near promoters of pLS1. All four deletions shared a common endpoint that corresponded to the putative target site for DNA strand nicking by the pC194 replication protein, RepH. At the other, variable endpoint, the DNA sequence was similar to the putative RepH target sequence. Alteration of the RepH protein, by in vitro modification of the gene encoding it, eliminated this class of deletions. By extending a previously proposed model for the generation of a different but related class of deletions (B. Michel and S.D. Ehrlich, EMBO J. 5:3691-3696, 1986), a comprehensive model that could generate both classes of deletions is suggested. It proposes that a nicking-closing activity of the plasmid replication protein at its normal target site and, aberrantly, at sites with similar sequence can generate deletions either proximal or distal to the aberrant site during rolling-circle replication of the plasmid.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Grkovic, S., Brown, M. H., Hardie, K. M., Firth, N., Skurray, R. A. (2003). Stable low-copy-number Staphylococcus aureus shuttle vectors. Microbiology 149: 785-794 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Prudhomme, M., Libante, V., Claverys, J.-P. (2002). Homologous recombination at the border: Insertion-deletions and the trapping of foreign DNA in Streptococcus pneumoniae. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99: 2100-2105 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Sartakova, M. L., Dobrikova, E. Y., Motaleb, M. A., Godfrey, H. P., Charon, N. W., Cabello, F. C. (2001). Complementation of a Nonmotile flaB Mutant of Borrelia burgdorferi by Chromosomal Integration of a Plasmid Containing a Wild-Type flaB Allele. J. Bacteriol. 183: 6558-6564 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Acebo, P., Nieto, C., Corrales, M. A., Espinosa, M., López, P. (2000). Quantitative detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae cells harbouring single or multiple copies of the gene encoding the green fluorescent protein. Microbiology 146: 1267-1273 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Widdowson, C. A., Adrian, P. V., Klugman, K. P. (2000). Acquisition of Chloramphenicol Resistance by the Linearization and Integration of the Entire Staphylococcal Plasmid pC194 into the Chromosome of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 44: 393-395 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• del Solar, G., Giraldo, R., Ruiz-Echevarria, M. J., Espinosa, M., Diaz-Orejas, R. (1998). Replication and Control of Circular Bacterial Plasmids. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 62: 434-464 [Abstract] [Full Text]