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Journal of Bacteriology, May 2008, p. 3306-3313, Vol. 190, No. 9
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01878-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Transposable Modules Generated by a Single Copy of Insertion Sequence ISPme1 and Their Influence on Structure and Evolution of Natural Plasmids of Paracoccus methylutens DM12{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Dariusz Bartosik,* Mateusz Putyrski, Lukasz Dziewit, Edyta Malewska, Michal Szymanik, Ewa Jagiello, Jacek Lukasik, and Jadwiga Baj

Department of Bacterial Genetics, Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland

Received 29 November 2007/ Accepted 12 February 2008

We demonstrated that a single copy of insertion sequence ISPme1 can mobilize adjacent segments of genomic DNA of Paracoccus methylutens DM12, which leads to the generation of diverse transposable elements of various size and DNA contents. All elements (named transposable modules [TMos]) contain ISPme1 (placed at the 5' ends of the elements) and have variable 3'-end regions of between 0.5 and 5 kb. ISPme1 was shown to encode an outwardly oriented promoter, which may activate the transcription of genes transposed within TMos in evolutionarily distinct hosts. TMos may therefore be considered to be natural systems enabling gene capture, expression, and spread. However, unless these elements have been inserted into a highly conserved genetic context to enable a precise definition of their termini, it is extremely difficult or even impossible to identify them in bacterial genomes by in silico sequence analysis. We showed that TMos are present in the chromosome and plasmids of strain DM12. Sequence analysis of plasmid pMTH1 (32 kb) revealed that four TMos, previously identified with a trap vector, pMEC1, comprise 87% of its genome. Repeated TMos within pMTH1 may stimulate other structural rearrangements resulting from homologous recombination between long repeat sequences. This illustrates that TMos may play a significant role in shaping the structure of natural plasmids, which consequently may have a great impact on the evolution of plasmid genomes.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Bacterial Genetics, Institute of Microbiology, University of Warsaw, Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland. Phone: 48 22 5541317. Fax: 48 225541404. E-mail: bartosik{at}biol.uw.edu.pl

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 22 February 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

Journal of Bacteriology, May 2008, p. 3306-3313, Vol. 190, No. 9
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01878-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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