Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1975 May;122(2):749–763. doi: 10.1128/jb.122.2.749-763.1975

Electron microscopic heteroduplex studies of sequence relations among plasmids of Escherichia coli: structure of F13 and related F-primes.

S Hu, E Ohtsubo, N Davidson
PMCID: PMC246114  PMID: 1092667

Abstract

The structure of F13, a plasmid containing lac, purE, and proC, has been determined by heteroduplex analysis. As expected for an F-prime formed by a type II excision event, it contains all the sequences of F plus a large segment of Escherichia coli chromosomal deoxyribonucleic acid. There is a sequence of F with coordinates 16.3-17.6F which has been shown in other studies to be the insertion sequence IS2. This IS2 occurs twice on F13, once at each of the two junctions of F deoxyribonucleic acid with chromosomal deoxyribonucleic acid. The sequence alpha beta which occurs twice on F with coordinates 93.2-94.5/OF and 13.7-15.0F occurs an additional three times, twice in an inverted order relative to the alpha beta sequences of F, on the chromosomal sequences of F13. The structures of the plasmids F13-4 and F210 have been determined. The common sequences of F13 with F152-1 (a derivative of F152, the classical F2gal) and with F13-4 and F210 have been mapped. These results partially map lac, proC, tsx, and purE on F13. On the basis of all of these results, it is proposed that Hfr 13 (the parent of F13) was formed by recirpocal recombination between IS2 on F and an IS2 resident at a point between lac and proC on the chromosome of the F+ parent of Hfr 13. It is proposed that this IS2 and the several alpha beta sequences on the chromosomal part of F13 are hot spots for recombination with F, i.e., for Hfr formation. The point of origin and direction of transfer of many Hfr's can be explained by this hypothesis. In particular, the sequence relations of F42-1 (Flac) and of F152-1 (F 2gal) with F13 are completely consistent with this model.

Full text

PDF
763

Images in this article

755Image
on p.755
757Image
on p.757
759Image
on p.759
761Image
on p.761

Selected References

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

  1. Anthony W. M., Deonier R. C., Lee H. J., Hu S., Otsubo E., Davidson N., Broda P. Electron microscope heteroduplex studies of sequence relations among plasmids of Escherichia coli. IX. Note on the deletion mutant of F, F delta(33-43). J Mol Biol. 1974 Nov 15;89(4):647–650. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(74)90041-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bachmann B. J. Pedigrees of some mutant strains of Escherichia coli K-12. Bacteriol Rev. 1972 Dec;36(4):525–557. doi: 10.1128/br.36.4.525-557.1972. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Broda P., Meacock P. Isolation and characterisation of Hfr strains from a recombination-deficient strain of Escherichia coli. Mol Gen Genet. 1971;113(2):166–173. doi: 10.1007/BF00333190. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Curtiss R., 3rd, Stallions D. R. Probability of F integration and frequency of stable Hfr donors in F+ populations of Escherichia coli K-12. Genetics. 1969 Sep;63(1):27–38. doi: 10.1093/genetics/63.1.27. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Deonier R. C., Otsubo E., Lee H. J., Davidson N. Electron microscope heteroduplex studies of sequence relations among plasmids of Escherichia coli. VII. Mapping the ribosomal RNA genes of plasmid F14. J Mol Biol. 1974 Nov 15;89(4):619–629. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(74)90039-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hirsch H. J., Saedler H., Starlinger P. Insertion mutations in the control region of the galactose operon of E. coli. II. Physical characterization of the mutations. Mol Gen Genet. 1972;115(3):266–276. doi: 10.1007/BF00268890. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hirsch H. J., Starlinger P., Brachet P. Two kinds of insertions in bacterial genes. Mol Gen Genet. 1972;119(3):191–206. doi: 10.1007/BF00333858. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hsu M. T., Davidson N. Structure of inserted bacteriophage Mu-1 DNA and physical mapping of bacterial genes by Mu-1 DNA insertion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1972 Oct;69(10):2823–2827. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.10.2823. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hu S., Otsubo E., Davidson N., Saedler H. Electron microscope heteroduplex studies of sequence relations among bacterial plasmids: identification and mapping of the insertion sequences IS1 and IS2 in F and R plasmids. J Bacteriol. 1975 May;122(2):764–775. doi: 10.1128/jb.122.2.764-775.1975. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Low K. B. Escherichia coli K-12 F-prime factors, old and new. Bacteriol Rev. 1972 Dec;36(4):587–607. doi: 10.1128/br.36.4.587-607.1972. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Martuscelli J., Taylor A. L., Cummings D. J., Chapman V. A., DeLong S. S., Cañedo L. Electron microscopic evidence for linear insertion of bacteriophage MU-1 in lysogenic bacteria. J Virol. 1971 Oct;8(4):551–563. doi: 10.1128/jvi.8.4.551-563.1971. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Otsubo E., Deonier R. C., Lee H. J., Davidson N. Electron microscope heteroduplex studies of sequence relations among plasmids of Escherichia coli. IV. The F sequences in F14. J Mol Biol. 1974 Nov 15;89(4):565–584. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(74)90036-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Scaife J. Episomes. Annu Rev Microbiol. 1967;21:601–638. doi: 10.1146/annurev.mi.21.100167.003125. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Sharp P. A., Hsu M. T., Otsubo E., Davidson N. Electron microscope heteroduplex studies of sequence relations among plasmids of Escherichia coli. I. Structure of F-prime factors. J Mol Biol. 1972 Nov 14;71(2):471–497. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(72)90363-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Sugino Y. Mutants of Escherichia coli sensitive to methylene blue and acridines. Genet Res. 1966 Feb;7(1):1–11. doi: 10.1017/s0016672300009423. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Taylor A. L., Trotter C. D. Linkage map of Escherichia coli strain K-12. Bacteriol Rev. 1972 Dec;36(4):504–524. doi: 10.1128/br.36.4.504-524.1972. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Willetts N. S. Location of the origin of transfer of the sex factor F. J Bacteriol. 1972 Nov;112(2):773–778. doi: 10.1128/jb.112.2.773-778.1972. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES