FIG. 5.

Analysis of the region homologous to pSymA present in pSmeSM11a compared with the corresponding region in pSymA of S. meliloti strain Rm1021. The homologous region of plasmid pSmeSM11a is designated region V in Fig. 2. (A) Comparison of the genetic organizations of pSymA and pSmeSM11a regions, showing conserved synteny. Coding regions with different organizations (designated regions A, B, C, D, E, and F) in the two homologous regions compared are indicated. Regions which are not present in pSmeSM11a and the position of the Tn5-mob insertion are indicated by open arrows (the drawings are not to scale). Gray boxes indicate a high degree of identity (87 to 100%) between the products of homologous ORFs. Bars 1, 2, 3, and 4 indicate pSmeSM11a amplicons used as probes in hybridization experiments with total DNA preparations from different S. meliloti strains. (B) Comparison of nucleotide sequences in regions A, B, C, D, E, and F of pSmeSM11a and pSymA. The nucleotide sequences differ mostly by 1- or 2-bp deletions. Boldface type indicates the exact positions of the differences. Underlining indicates the sequences in which a single nucleotide is absent. The 232-bp duplicated region in pSmeSM11a that is responsible for a frameshift in the degP4 region (orf125 to orf127) is indicated by the sequence in parentheses (region C).