This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hashimoto, J. G.
Right arrow Articles by Schmidt, T. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hashimoto, J. G.
Right arrow Articles by Schmidt, T. M.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Bacteriology, February 2003, p. 966-972, Vol. 185, No. 3
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.3.966-972.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Rates and Consequences of Recombination between rRNA Operons

Joel G. Hashimoto,{dagger} Bradley S. Stevenson, and Thomas M. Schmidt*

Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

Received 25 June 2002/ Accepted 11 November 2002

A mutant strain of Escherichia coli was created by inserting a cassette encoding sucrose sensitivity and neomycin resistance (sacB-neo) into the small-subunit rRNA-encoding gene rrs in the rrnB operon. During growth in a complex medium, the cassette was lost from the population, and a complete rrs gene was restored at a rate of 5 x 10-9 per cell division. Repair of this lesion required flanking regions of DNA that were similar to the six remaining intact rRNA operons and reestablished the full complement of seven rRNA operons. The relative fitness of strains with restored rrnB operons was 1 to 2% higher than that of the mutant strain. The rrnB operon normally contains a spacer region between the 16S and 23S rRNA-encoding genes that is similar in length and tRNA gene content to the spacer in rrnC, -E, and -G. In 2 of the 14 strains in which rrnB was restored, the spacer region had the same length as the spacer region in rrnA, -D, and -H. The requirement for flanking regions of nearly identical DNA and the replication of the spacer region from other rRNA operons during the repair of rrnB suggest that the restoration was accomplished via gene conversion. The rate of gene conversion was 10-fold less than the fixation of point mutations in the same region of the chromosome but was apparently sufficient to homogenize the sequences of rRNA genes in E. coli. These findings are discussed in the context of a conceptual model describing the presence of sequence heterogeneity in coevolving rRNA genes.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, 6180 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823-4320. Phone: (517) 353-1796 x1606. Fax: (517) 353-8957. E-mail: tschmidt{at}msu.edu.

{dagger} Present address: Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR 97201.

Journal of Bacteriology, February 2003, p. 966-972, Vol. 185, No. 3
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.3.966-972.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Lee, Z. M.-P., Bussema, C. III, Schmidt, T. M. (2009). rrnDB: documenting the number of rRNA and tRNA genes in bacteria and archaea. Nucleic Acids Res 37: D489-D493 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Isabel, S., Leblanc, E., Boissinot, M., Boudreau, D. K., Grondin, M., Picard, F. J., Martel, E. A., Parham, N. J., Chain, P. S. G., Bader, D. E., Mulvey, M. R., Bryden, L., Roy, P. H., Ouellette, M., Bergeron, M. G. (2008). Divergence among Genes Encoding the Elongation Factor Tu of Yersinia Species. J. Bacteriol. 190: 7548-7558 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wang, F. Q., Wang, E. T., Liu, J., Chen, Q., Sui, X. H., Chen, W. F., Chen, W. X. (2007). Mesorhizobium albiziae sp. nov., a novel bacterium that nodulates Albizia kalkora in a subtropical region of China. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 57: 1192-1199 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Wolter, N., Smith, A. M., Farrell, D. J., Klugman, K. P. (2006). Heterogeneous Macrolide Resistance and Gene Conversion in the Pneumococcus. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 50: 359-361 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Conlan, L. H., Stanger, M. J., Ichiyanagi, K., Belfort, M. (2005). Localization, mobility and fidelity of retrotransposed Group II introns in rRNA genes. Nucleic Acids Res 33: 5262-5270 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Gregory, S. T., Carr, J. F., Rodriguez-Correa, D., Dahlberg, A. E. (2005). Mutational Analysis of 16S and 23S rRNA Genes of Thermus thermophilus. J. Bacteriol. 187: 4804-4812 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Binet, R., Maurelli, A. T. (2005). Frequency of Spontaneous Mutations That Confer Antibiotic Resistance in Chlamydia spp.. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 49: 2865-2873 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Das, G., Dineshkumar, T. K., Thanedar, S., Varshney, U. (2005). Acquisition of a stable mutation in metY allows efficient initiation from an amber codon in Escherichia coli. Microbiology 151: 1741-1750 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Prunier, A.-L., Leclercq, R. (2005). Role of mutS and mutL Genes in Hypermutability and Recombination in Staphylococcus aureus. J. Bacteriol. 187: 3455-3464 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Chelo, I. M., Ze-Ze, L., Chambel, L., Tenreiro, R. (2004). Physical and genetic map of the Weissella paramesenteroides DSMZ 20288T chromosome and characterization of different rrn operons by ITS analysis. Microbiology 150: 4075-4084 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Stevenson, B. S., Schmidt, T. M. (2004). Life History Implications of rRNA Gene Copy Number in Escherichia coli. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70: 6670-6677 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Schouls, L. M., Schot, C. S., Jacobs, J. A. (2003). Horizontal Transfer of Segments of the 16S rRNA Genes between Species of the Streptococcus anginosus Group. J. Bacteriol. 185: 7241-7246 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Teyssier, C., Marchandin, H., Simeon De Buochberg, M., Ramuz, M., Jumas-Bilak, E. (2003). Atypical 16S rRNA Gene Copies in Ochrobactrum intermedium Strains Reveal a Large Genomic Rearrangement by Recombination between rrn Copies. J. Bacteriol. 185: 2901-2909 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»