Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1982 Jan;79(1):46–50. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.1.46

Transposon-specified site-specific recombination.

P Kitts, L Symington, M Burke, R Reed, D Sherratt
PMCID: PMC345658  PMID: 6275390

Abstract

Cointegrate DNA molecules containing two copies of a transposable element appear to be intermediates in the transposition process. These structures are resolved by site-specific recombination to yield the normal end products of transposition. The transposable element gamma delta (Tn1000) synthesizes a product interchangeable with the Tn1/3tnpR protein in promoting Tn1/3 site-specific recombination. These data support the hypothesis that cointegrates containing directly repeated copies of Tn1/3 are obligatory intermediates in interreplicon transposition of Tn1/3. In addition, we show here that the reaction is independent of the element-encoded tnpA gene product. Tn501, which specifies mercury resistance, also produces cointegrates as intermediates in interreplicon transposition. The appearance of Tn501-specified recombination activity that can act on these cointegrates requires growth of cells in the presence of Hg2+.

Full text

PDF
48

Images in this article

48Image
on p.48
48Image
on p.48
49Image
on p.49

Selected References

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

  1. Arthur A., Sherratt D. Dissection of the transposition process: a transposon-encoded site-specific recombination system. Mol Gen Genet. 1979 Oct 1;175(3):267–274. doi: 10.1007/BF00397226. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brown N. L., Choi C. L., Grinsted J., Richmond M. H., Whitehead P. R. Nucleotide sequences at the ends of the mercury resistance transposon, Tn501. Nucleic Acids Res. 1980 May 10;8(9):1933–1945. doi: 10.1093/nar/8.9.1933. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Chou J., Casadaban M. J., Lemaux P. G., Cohen S. N. Identification and characterization of a self-regulated repressor of translocation of the Tn3 element. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Aug;76(8):4020–4024. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.8.4020. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chou J., Lemaux P. G., Casadaban M. J., Cohen S. N. Transposition protein of Tn3: identification and characterisation of an essential repressor-controlled gene product. Nature. 1979 Dec 20;282(5741):801–806. doi: 10.1038/282801a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Cullum J., Broda P. Chromosome transfer and Hfr formation by F in rec+ and recA strains of Escherichia coli K12. Plasmid. 1979 Jul;2(3):358–365. doi: 10.1016/0147-619x(79)90019-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gill R. E., Heffron F., Falkow S. Identification of the protein encoded by the transposable element Tn3 which is required for its transposition. Nature. 1979 Dec 20;282(5741):797–801. doi: 10.1038/282797a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gill R., Heffron F., Dougan G., Falkow S. Analysis of sequences transposed by complementation of two classes of transposition-deficient mutants of Tn3. J Bacteriol. 1978 Nov;136(2):742–756. doi: 10.1128/jb.136.2.742-756.1978. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Grindley N. D., Joyce C. M. Analysis of the structure and function of the kanamycin-resistance transposon Tn903. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1981;45(Pt 1):125–133. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1981.045.01.021. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Guyer M. S., Reed R. R., Steitz J. A., Low K. B. Identification of a sex-factor-affinity site in E. coli as gamma delta. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1981;45(Pt 1):135–140. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1981.045.01.022. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Guyer M. S. The gamma delta sequence of F is an insertion sequence. J Mol Biol. 1978 Dec 15;126(3):347–365. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(78)90045-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Heffron F., McCarthy B. J., Ohtsubo H., Ohtsubo E. DNA sequence analysis of the transposon Tn3: three genes and three sites involved in transposition of Tn3. Cell. 1979 Dec;18(4):1153–1163. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(79)90228-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Heffron F., So M., McCarthy B. J. In vitro mutagenesis of a circular DNA molecule by using synthetic restriction sites. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1978 Dec;75(12):6012–6016. doi: 10.1073/pnas.75.12.6012. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Meyer R., Boch G., Shapiro J. Transposition of DNA inserted into deletions of the Tn5 kanamycin resistance element. Mol Gen Genet. 1979 Mar 9;171(1):7–13. doi: 10.1007/BF00274009. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Reed R. R. Resolution of cointegrates between transposons gamma delta and Tn3 defines the recombination site. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Jun;78(6):3428–3432. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.6.3428. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Reed R. R., Young R. A., Steitz J. A., Grindley N. D., Guyer M. S. Transposition of the Escherichia coli insertion element gamma generates a five-base-pair repeat. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Oct;76(10):4882–4886. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.10.4882. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Shapiro J. A. Molecular model for the transposition and replication of bacteriophage Mu and other transposable elements. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Apr;76(4):1933–1937. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.4.1933. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Sherratt D., Arthur A., Burke M. Transposon-specified, site-specific recombination systems. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1981;45(Pt 1):275–281. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1981.045.01.040. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. So M., Heffron F., McCarthy B. J. The E. coli gene encoding heat stable toxin is a bacterial transposon flanked by inverted repeats of IS1. Nature. 1979 Feb 8;277(5696):453–456. doi: 10.1038/277453a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Summers A. O., Silver S. Mercury resistance in a plasmid-bearing strain of Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1972 Dec;112(3):1228–1236. doi: 10.1128/jb.112.3.1228-1236.1972. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Thompson R., Achtman M. The control region of the F sex factor DNA transfer cistrons: restriction mapping and DNA cloning. Mol Gen Genet. 1978 Oct 24;165(3):295–304. doi: 10.1007/BF00332530. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Zieg J., Simon M. Analysis of the nucleotide sequence of an invertible controlling element. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Jul;77(7):4196–4200. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.7.4196. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES