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. 1987 Feb;169(2):619–623. doi: 10.1128/jb.169.2.619-623.1987

Repressor gene finO in plasmids R100 and F: constitutive transfer of plasmid F is caused by insertion of IS3 into F finO.

Y Yoshioka, H Ohtsubo, E Ohtsubo
PMCID: PMC211823  PMID: 3027040

Abstract

Fertility factor F confers bacterial conjugation, a process which involves at least 20 tra genes. Resistance plasmids such as R100, R6-5, and R1 have homology with F in the tra region. Conjugal transfer of these plasmids is, however, repressed, while transfer of F is constitutive. Repression of R transfer is due to the existence of the two genes, called finO and finP; constitutive transfer of F is believed to be due to a lack of finO in F. In this paper, we report the identification and DNA sequence of the finO gene of R100, encoding a protein of 21,265 daltons. We show that F does actually encode finO, but the gene has been inactivated by insertion of IS3. Lederberg and Tatum (Nature [London] 158:558, 1946), who discovered sexuality in bacteria, may have had an Escherichia coli K-12 strain harboring such an finO F factor, which facilitated the generation of recombinant progeny useful for genetic analysis of bacteria and established the foundation for molecular genetics.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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