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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 Apr;79(7):2393–2397. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.7.2393

Construction of DNA recognition sites active in Haemophilus transformation.

D B Danner, H O Smith, S A Narang
PMCID: PMC346200  PMID: 6285382

Abstract

Competent Haemophilus cells recognize and preferentially take up Haemophilus DNA during genetic transformation. This preferential uptake is correlated with the presence on incoming DNA of an 11-base-pair (bp) sequence, 5'-A-A-G-T-G-C-G-G-T-C-A-3'. To prove that this sequence is the recognition site that identifies Haemophilus DNA to the competent cell, we have now constructed a series of plasmids, each of which contains the 11-bp sequence. Using two different assay systems we have tested the ability of fragments from these plasmids to compete with cloned Haemophilus DNA fragments that naturally contain the 11-bp sequence. We find that the addition of the 11-bp sequence to a DNA fragment is necessary and sufficient for preferential uptake of that fragment. However, plasmid DNAs containing this sequence may vary as much as 48-fold in uptake activity, and this variation correlates with the A+T-richness of the DNA flanking the 11-mer.

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Selected References

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