title: Construction of miniplasmids from the 7.2-kb and 5.1-kb penicillinase-producing plasmids of Neisseria gonorrhoeae reveals two replication regions.
abstract: Two replication regions have been identified on a 7.2-kb penicillinase-producing plasmid (pJD4) of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Through construction of mini-plasmids, one replication region of pJD4 was located on a 1.5-kb fragment, designated region "a," that included the unique HindIII site of this plasmid. This region is absent from the 5.1-kb naturally occurring gonococcal penicillinase-producing plasmid (pJD5) which is considered to be a deletion-derivative of the 7.2-kb plasmid. A 1.5-kb fragment (region "b"), part of a 2.5-kb fragment essential for the replication of the 5.1-kb plasmid (pJD5), was found to be responsible for incompatibility. Incompatibility studies showed that in vitro-derived deletion-derivatives from pJD4 and pJD5 containing either region "a" or region "b" were compatible. The DNA sequence of part of region "a" showed that this region was A-T rich. It contained seven sets of A-T rich multiple direct repeats and two putative dnaA boxes, suggesting that the mechanism of replication of region "a" was similar to that of OriC in Escherichia coli.
authors.affiliation: Antimicrobials and Molecular Biology Division, Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Yeung
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Dillon
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D004261:DNA Replication; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009344:Neisseria gonorrhoeae / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D010405:Penicillinase / Q000235:genetics*; D010957:Plasmids; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D010405:Penicillinase