This Article Full Text 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 Genka, H. Articles by Tsuda, M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Genka, H. Articles by Tsuda, M.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Bacteriology, September 2002, p. 4757-4766, Vol. 184, No. 17
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.17.4757-4766.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Site-Specific Recombination System Encoded by Toluene Catabolic Transposon Tn4651

Hiroyuki Genka, Yuji Nagata, and Masataka Tsuda^*

Department of Environmental Life Sciences, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Sendai 980-8577, Japan

Received 21 March 2002/ Accepted 5 June 2002

The 56-kb class II toluene catabolic transposon Tn4651 from Pseudomonas putida plasmid pWW0 is unique in that (i) its efficient resolution requires, in addition to the 0.2-kb resolution (res) site, the two gene products TnpS and TnpT and (ii) the 2.4-kb tnpT-res-tnpS region is 48 kb apart from the tnpA gene (M. Tsuda, K.-I. Minegishi, and T. Iino, J. Bacteriol. 171:1386-1393, 1989). Detailed analysis of the 2.4-kb region revealed that the tnpS and tnpT genes encoding the putative 323- and 332-amino-acid proteins, respectively, were transcribed divergently with an overlapping 59-bp sequence in the 203-bp res site. The motifs (the R-H-R-Y tetrad in domains I and II with proper spacing) commonly conserved in the integrase family of site-specific recombinases were found in TnpS. In contrast, TnpT did not show any significant amino acid sequence homology to the other proteins that are directly or indirectly involved in recombination. Analysis of site-specific recombination under the Escherichia coli recA cells indicated that (i) the site-specific resolution between the two copies of the res site on a single molecule was catalyzed by TnpS, (ii) the functional res site was located within a 95-bp segment, and (iii) TnpT appeared to have the role of enhancing the site-specific resolution. It was also found that TnpS catalyzed the site-specific recombination between the res sites located at two different molecules to form a cointegrate molecule. Site-specific mutagenesis of the conserved tyrosine residue in TnpS led to the loss of both the resolution and the integration activities, indicating that such a residue took part in both types of recombination.

---

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Environmental Life Sciences, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Sendai 980-8577, Japan. Phone: 81-22-217-5699. Fax: 81-22-217-5699. E-mail: mtsuda{at}ige.tohoku.ac.jp.

---

Journal of Bacteriology, September 2002, p. 4757-4766, Vol. 184, No. 17
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.17.4757-4766.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Miyakoshi, M., Shintani, M., Terabayashi, T., Kai, S., Yamane, H., Nojiri, H. (2007). Transcriptome Analysis of Pseudomonas putida KT2440 Harboring the Completely Sequenced IncP-7 Plasmid pCAR1. J. Bacteriol. 189: 6849-6860 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Sota, M., Yano, H., Ono, A., Miyazaki, R., Ishii, H., Genka, H., Top, E. M., Tsuda, M. (2006). Genomic and Functional Analysis of the IncP-9 Naphthalene-Catabolic Plasmid NAH7 and Its Transposon Tn4655 Suggests Catabolic Gene Spread by a Tyrosine Recombinase. J. Bacteriol. 188: 4057-4067 [Abstract] [Full Text]