Characterization of replication and conjugation of Streptomyces circular plasmids pFP1 and pFP11 and their ability to propagate in linear mode with artificially attached telomeres

Many Streptomyces species harbor circular plasmids (8 to 31 kb) as well as linear plasmids (12 to 1,700 kb). We report the characterization of two newly detected circular plasmids, pFP11 (35,139 bp) and pFP1 (39,360 bp). As on linear plasmids, their replication loci comprise repA genes and adjacent iterons, to which RepA proteins bind specifically in vitro. Plasmids containing the minimal iterons plus the repA locus of pFP11 were inherited extremely unstably; par and additional loci were required for stable inheritance. Surprisingly, plasmids containing replication loci from pFP11 or Streptomyces circular plasmid SCP2 but not from pFP1, SLP1, or pIJ101 propagated in a stable linear mode when the telomeres of a linear plasmid were attached. These results indicate bidirectional replication for pFP11 and SCP2. Both pFP11 and pFP1 contain, for plasmid transfer, a major functional traB gene (encoding a DNA translocase typical for Streptomyces plasmids) as well as, surprisingly, a putative traA gene (encoding a DNA nickase, characteristic of single-stranded DNA transfer of gram-negative plasmids), but this did not appear to be functional, at least in isolation.     

Characterization of Streptomyces plasmid-phage pFP4 and its evolutionary implications

Autonomous-replicating plasmid pFP4 of Streptomyces sp. FR1 isolated from a heavy metal-contaminated land was cloned and sequenced. Surprisingly, the 40,949-bp pFP4 contains a cluster of 20 genes, resembling these chromosome-integrated prophages of Streptomyces sp. SPB78 and Streptomyces scabiei 87.22. Plasmid pFP4 could transfer by conjugation and a replication locus, iteron/repA/repB, was identified. The filtered FR1 culture could infect both FR1 and FR1 cured of pFP4 to form plaques, and also six out of 13 strains from the same land, but failed to form plaques on other seven strains from same source and all ten Streptomyces species from different sources. pFP4 phage particles were observed by transmission electron microscopy. Major structural proteins (capsid, portal and tail, etc.) of pFP4 virions were encoded by twelve pFP4 genes. pFP4 phage DNA contained 3' protruding cohesive ends of 9-nt. Streptomyces pFP4 represents a novel plasmid-phage.     

Adaptative potential of the Lactococcus lactis IL594 strain encoded in its 7 plasmids

The extrachromosomal gene pool plays a significant role both in evolution and in the environmental adaptation of bacteria. The L. lactis subsp. lactis IL594 strain contains seven plasmids, named pIL1 to pIL7, and is the parental strain of the plasmid-free L. lactis IL1403, which is one of the best characterized lactococcal strains of LAB. Complete nucleotide sequences of pIL1 (6,382 bp), pIL2 (8,277 bp), pIL3 (19,244 bp), pIL4 (48,979), pIL5 (23,395), pIL6 (28,435 bp) and pIL7 (28,546) were established and deposited in the generally accessible database (GeneBank). Nine highly homologous repB-containing replicons, belonging to the lactococcal theta-type replicons, have been identified on the seven plasmids. Moreover, a putative region involved in conjugative plasmid mobilization was found on four plasmids, through identification of the presence of mob genes and/or oriT sequences. Detailed bioinformatic analysis of the plasmid nucleotide sequences provided new insight into the repertoire of plasmid-encoded functions in L. lactis, and indicated that plasmid genes from IL594 strain can be important for L. lactis adaptation to specific environmental conditions (e.g. genes coding for proteins involved in DNA repair or cold shock response) as well as for technological processes (e.g. genes encoding citrate and lactose utilization, oligopeptide transport, restriction-modification system). Moreover, global gene analysis indicated cooperation between plasmid- and chromosome-encoded metabolic pathways.     

Suppression of ColE1 high-copy-number mutants by mutations in the polA gene of Escherichia coli.

We isolated three Escherichia coli suppressor strains that reduce the copy number of a mutant ColE1 high-copy-number plasmid. These mutations lower the copy number of the mutant plasmid in vivo up to 15-fold; the wild-type plasmid copy number is reduced by two- to threefold. The suppressor strains do not affect the copy numbers of non-ColE1-type plasmids tested, suggesting that their effects are specific for ColE1-type plasmids. Two of the suppressor strains show ColE1 allele-specific suppression; i.e., certain plasmid copy number mutations are suppressed more efficiently than others, suggesting specificity in the interaction between the suppressor gene product and plasmid replication component(s). All of the mutations were genetically mapped to the chromosomal polA gene, which encodes DNA polymerase I. The suppressor mutational changes were identified by DNA sequencing and found to alter single nucleotides in the region encoding the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I. Two mutations map in the DNA-binding cleft of the polymerase region and are suggested to affect specific interactions of the enzyme with the replication primer RNA encoded by the plasmid. The third suppressor alters a residue in the 3'-5' exonuclease domain of the enzyme. Implications for the interaction of DNA polymerase I with the ColE1 primer RNA are discussed.     

Study of the influence of plasmids on the arbitrary primer polymerase chain reaction fingerprint of Escherichia coli strains

Abstract To study the effect of plasmids on the arbitrary primer-polymerase chain reaction fingerprint of bacterial strains, the Escherichia coli strains DH5, Top10, and W3110 were transformed with plasmids of different sizes: respectively, pUC19, pCEP and two clinically important plasmids carrying resistance to several antibiotics. Total DNA, i.e. both chromosomal and plasmid DNA, was prepared from transformed cells by boiling the cell suspensions and by phenol-chloroform extraction; chromosomal DNA was prepared by the same methods from the non-transformed, plasmid-free strains; plasmid DNA of pUC19 was purchased; plasmid DNA of pCEP was purified from the transformed strains by caesium chloride density gradient centrifugation. Arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction was carried out for all of these preparations. Amplification carried out independently with three different primers resulted in similar patterns for the chromosomal preparations whether or not plasmid was present. Amplification of plasmid DNA gave different patterns, characterized by fragments larger than those obtained when total or chromosomal DNA were used as the target. These data illustrate that the plasmids studied here do not influence the chromosomal arbitrarily primed PCR fingerprint, although plasmids alone are amplified in the absence of chromosomal DNA. Experiments comparing different relative concentrations of plasmid and chromosomal DNA indicate that under natural conditions the amount of chromosomal DNA per cell is sufficient to inhibit observable amplification of the plasmid(s) present.     

Plasmid transfer from Streptomyces to Mycobacterium smegmatis by spontaneous transformation

Hybrids of the Streptomyces coelicolor conjugative plasmid SCP2* and the Mycobacterium plasmid pAL5000 were transferred from Streptomyces coelicolor or Streptomyces lividans to Mycobacterium smegmatis mc2155 in plate crosses. Inactivation of the SCP2* transfer function did not prevent or reduce plasmid transfer. This transfer was DNase I sensitive and thus involved release of DNA from Streptomyces, followed by transformation of M. smegmatis. M. smegmatis growing on specific solid media was also transformed by pure CCC and linear plasmid DNA. Small plasmids were taken up intact but large plasmids suffered deletions. Competence developed within 24 h of incubation at 30 degrees C or 37 degrees C, and up to 400 transformants were obtained per microg of CCC plasmid DNA. Transformation frequencies were higher when M. smegmatis was co-cultivated with plasmid-free Streptomyces, but unaffected by resident homologous sequences or inactivation of recA in M. smegmatis. Spontaneous transformation was also observed with a circular Streptomyces transposable element which inserted into chromosomal sites. Transformative plasmid transfer was also shown to occur between M. smegmatis strains. This is the first report of non-artificially induced, spontaneous plasmid transformation in Mycobacterium.     

Physical characterization of Rhizobium meliloti megaplasmids

Intact megaplasmids of Rhizobium meliloti 2011 have been isolated and visualized by electron microscopy. The contour lengths of 64 megaplasmid molecules were determined. One definite class of molecules of 400 micron length and a range of larger molecules with lengths of up to 560 micron was observed. The contour lengths of the megaplasmids pRme2011a and pRme2011b were measured after isolation from plasmid-free Agrobacterium strains into which they had been individually transferred. Plasmid pRme2011a corresponds to the 400-micron class of megaplasmids while plasmid pRme2011b belongs to the 560-micron class. Preparatively isolated megaplasmids pRme2011a and b showed completely different restriction patterns. The pattern of total megaplasmid DNA from R. meliloti 2011 is composed of those from pRme2011a and b, suggesting that no more than two different megaplasmids exist. Because the length distributions of measured molecules were broad, R. meliloti 2011 megaplasmids seem to vary in length in vivo. Because only pRme2011a hybridized with a nifHD probe, this is the Sym plasmid. For R. meliloti strain MVII-1, which carries the megaplasmids pRmeMVII-1f and pRmeMVII-1g, pRmeMVII-1f was shown to be the Sym plasmid. Buoyant density determinations of R. meliloti 2011 and MVII-1 megaplasmids gave a value of 1.717 g/cm3 for pSym, which is that of Agrobacterium DNA. The buoyant density of the second megaplasmid was 1.721 g/cm3, corresponding to the density of the R. meliloti chromosome. As determined by reassociation kinetics, pRme2011a and b are unrelated. The degree of relatedness between strains MVII-1 and 2011 was 82%.     

The mitochondrial genome of the Basidiomycete fungus Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom)

In this study, the full mitochondrial genome of a basidiomycete fungus, Pleurotus ostreatus, was sequenced and analyzed. It is a circular DNA molecule of 73 242 bp and contains 44 known genes encoding 18 proteins and 26 RNA genes. The protein-coding genes include 14 common mitochondrial genes, one ribosomal small subunit protein 3 gene, one RNA polymerase gene and two DNA polymerase genes. In addition, one RNA and one DNA polymerase genes were identified in a mitochondrial plasmid. These two genes show relatively low similarities to their homologs in the mitochondrial genome but they are nearly identical to the known mitochondrial plasmid genes from another Pleurotus ostreatus strain. This suggests that the plasmid may mediate the horizontal gene transfer of the DNA and RNA polymerase genes into mitochondrial genome, and such a transfer may be an ancient event. Phylogenetic analysis based on the cox1 ORFs verified the traditional classification of Pleurotus ostreatus among fungi. However, the discordances were observed in the phylogenetic trees based on the six cox1 intronic ORFs of Pleurotus ostreatus and their homologs in other species, suggesting that these intronic ORFs are foreign DNA sequences obtained through HGT. In summary, this analysis provides valuable information towards the understanding of the evolution of fungal mtDNA.     

Intragenic variation by site-specific recombination in the cryptic plasmid of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Cryptic plasmid DNA of Neisseria gonorrhoeae was found integrated into the gonococcal chromosome in both plasmid-bearing strains and plasmid-free strains. At several chromosomal locations only segments of the plasmid were found. However, in at least two strains an intact copy of the plasmid seemed to be present with the joints between the plasmid and the chromosomal DNA being located within the cppB gene of the cryptic plasmid. The cppB gene was shown to undergo a sequence-specific intragenic deletion. The deletion removed 54 base pairs, representing 18 amino acids, and did not affect the reading frame. It is proposed that the cryptic plasmid integrates into the chromosome and other gonococcal plasmids within this site-specific deletion region. Models for the site-specific recombination are presented.     

Design of a species-specific DNA probe based on the pFra plasmid of the plague pathogen]

The recombinant plasmid pBS1 carrying a 2 kb SalGI fragment of Yersinia pestis pFra plasmid was constructed by insertion of the fragment into a vector plasmid pBR327. SalGI-BspRI 400 bp subfragment was recloned into a pBR322 vector plasmid. Open reading frame was found in the fragment by DNA sequencing technique. The subfragment designated F1-probe permits one to identify specifically the Yersinia pestis strains harbouring pFra plasmid, thus, differing them from closely related Yersiniea and other representatives of Enterobacteriaceae family.     

Stability of plasmid-bearing microorganisms in batch and continuous cultures

The stability of five microbial strains bearing a domestic and/or exotic plasmid was investigated in continuous culture to obtain basic information on the fate of genetically engineered microorganisms released in the natural environment.The three strains with an exotic plasmid were constructed by the conjugal or mobilized transfer of conjugative plasmid R100-1 and non-conjugative plasmid RSF2124. Plasmid loss occurred only at the declining growth phase of batch culture of the transconjugants; the ratio of plasmid-free cells was 40–50% at the end of the culture, independent of the strains, whereas the plasmid in the native host cells was maintained at almost 100% of stability.In continuous culture of the transconjugant cells, the population ratio of plasmid-free cells at the pseudo-steady state was between 5–80% depending on the strain. The plasmid-bearing cells were not washed out of the continuous fermentor for 43 generations but maintained their quasi-stable concentration with some degree of oscillation. Simultaneous loss and retransfer of the plasmid from and to its host cells is suggested for the explanation.     

沙眼衣原体GlgA蛋白表达和分泌的调控机制

【背景】沙眼衣原体(Chlamydia trachomatis,Ct)的分泌蛋白在Ct与宿主细胞的相互作用、感染发育周期及致病过程中发挥着至关重要的作用。GlgA蛋白是课题组前期研究发现的一种新的Ct分泌蛋白,其表达和分泌的具体机制及作用还不清楚。【目的】寻找调控CtGlgA蛋白表达和分泌的分子机制,为后续Ct致病机制研究提供实验基础和新思路。【方法】采用Signal P 4.1软件对GlgA蛋白N端进行信号肽预测分析,并用细菌分泌蛋白特异性阻断剂C16和C1化合物分别或同时处理Ct感染的He La细胞,观察阻断Ⅱ型、Ⅲ型分泌途径对GlgA蛋白分泌的影响;经新生霉素处理、噬斑筛选及穿梭质粒转染技术,构建Ct质粒缺失株和缺失互补株,并鉴定质粒编码基因在两种菌株的缺失及表达情况;间接免疫荧光法观察质粒缺失对GlgA表达和分泌的影响。【结果】GlgA蛋白N端无信号肽序列,细菌Ⅱ型、Ⅲ型分泌途径特异性阻断剂C16和C1化合物不能阻断GlgA的胞浆分泌;Ct质粒缺失株CTD1的质粒编码基因pgp7丢失,且质粒编码蛋白Pgp3及基因组编码蛋白GlgA的表达和分泌现象均消失;Ct缺失互补株CTD1-pGFP::SW2重新获得pgp7基因,并恢复Pgp3蛋白和GlgA的表达和分泌。【结论】初步证实Ct糖原合酶GlgA蛋白的表达和分泌不依赖细菌Ⅱ型和Ⅲ型分泌途径,而且与衣原体质粒密切相关。     

Translocation of antibiotic resistance markers of a plasmid-free Streptococcus pyogenes (group A) strain into different streptococcal hemolysin plasmids

Summary Wild-type strain A454 (Streptococcus pyogenes) transferred en bloc its erythromycin (Em) and tetracycline (Tc) resistance markers into several plasmid-free streptococcal recipients. No plasmid DNA was detected in either the wild-type or the transconjugant strains. Crosses were performed between A454 and S. faecalis Rec⁺ or Rec^- recipients carrying hemolysin-bacteriocin plasmids, pIP964 or pAD1. The Em Tc-resistant transconjugants obtained harbored either the parental plasmid or an Em Tc resistance plasmid derived from pIP964 or pAD1. The restriction endonuclease analysis of 12 derivative plasmids showed insertions of various sizes into different fragments of pIP964 or pAD1. A454 and the Em Tc-resistant plasmid-free transconjugants were found to contain two EcoRI DNA fragments, that shared homology with ³²P-labeled pIP1077, one of the Em Tc resistance derivative plasmids, but not with ³²P-labeled pIP964. No homology was detected between pIP1077 and the cellular DNA of the antibiotic-susceptible recipients.Previously Thea Horodniceanu     

Identification, isolation, and overexpression of the gene encoding the psi subunit of DNA polymerase III holoenzyme.

The gene encoding the psi subunit of DNA polymerase III holoenzyme, holD, was identified and isolated by an approach in which peptide sequence data were used to obtain a DNA hybridization probe. The gene, which maps to 99.3 centisomes, was sequenced and found to be identical to a previously uncharacterized open reading frame that overlaps the 5' end of rimI by 29 bases, contains 411 bp, and is predicted to encode a protein of 15,174 Da. When expressed in a plasmid that also expressed holC, holD directed expression of the psi subunit to about 3% of total soluble protein.     

Characterization of intein homing endonuclease encoded in the DNA polymerase gene of Thermococcus marinus

The DNA polymerase gene of Thermococcus marinus ( Tma ) contains an intein inserted at the pol-b site that possesses a 1611-bp ORF encoding a 537-amino acid residue. The LAGLIDADG motif, often found in site-specific DNA endonucleases, was detected within the amino acid sequence of the intein. The intein endonuclease, denoted as PI- Tma , was purified as a naturally spliced product from the expression of the complete DNA polymerase gene in Escherichia coli . PI- Tma cleaved intein-less DNA sequences, leaving four-base-long, 3'-hydroxyl overhangs with 5'-phosphate. Nonpalindromic recognition sequences 19 bp long were also identified using partially complementary oligonucleotide pair sequences inserted into the plasmid pET-22b(+). Cleavage by PI- Tma was optimal when present in 50 mM glycine–NaOH (pH 10.5), 150 mM KCl and 12 mM MgCl₂ at 70 °C.     

Characterization of Streptococcus criceti insertion sequence ISScr1

A novel insertion sequence element of the IS982 family, ISScr1, was previously identified in Streptococcus criceti strain E49 as a disrupted paaB gene encoding an antigen I/II homologous protein. In this study, we identified two divergent inserted regions of ISScr1 in S. criceti E49 by inverse polymerase chain reaction, the gene-walking method, and screening of the partial plasmid library. Nucleotide sequence analysis indicated the possible explanation that transposition generated 8- and 9-bp direct repeat sequences. DNA hybridization analysis revealed that an identical hybridization pattern to ISScr1 was observed in the four S. criceti strains studied and that at least three copies of ISScr1 were preserved in S. criceti strains. In addition, we found different susceptibility to erythromycin and diverse agglutination properties induced by dextran in S. criceti. Furthermore, DNA hybridization analysis showed that no ISScr1-like copy was detected in the other 14 strains of oral streptococci tested.     

HSV-tk基因逆转录病毒重组体的构建与DNA序列分析

目的　构建含有单纯疱疹病毒Ⅰ型胸苷激酶 (HSV1 tk)基因的逆转录病毒重组载体pLXSN TK。方法设计一对寡核苷酸引物 ,用PCR方法从质粒pHSV10 6中特异扩增HSV tk基因片段 ( 1168bp) ,分别用BamHI和Eco RI酶切后 ,定向连接到质粒pLXSN中 ,转化宿主菌TG1,分别用上述内切酶 ,PCR和DNA测序鉴定重组质粒。结果　酶切鉴定所切下的片段和PCR扩增的片段大小均与预计相符 ,测序结果与文献报道序列及预计结果一致 ,证实符合表达框架。结论　成功构建了HSV tk嵌合重组质粒pLXSN TK。