title: Instability of Rts1 (drug-resistant factor) replicon: stabilization by DNA fragments derived from Rts1.
abstract: Rts1 is a large naturally occurring plasmid which has a kanamycin resistance gene and exhibits various temperature-sensitive phenotypes. A smaller derivative of plasmid, pOK, contains the Rts1 replicon and the kanamycin resistance gene of Rts1. This plasmid, pOK, is much more unstable than Rts1 at 42.5 degrees C. A DNA fragment, G3, 1590 nucleotides long from Rts1 DNA, stabilized pOK completely at 42.5 degrees C but only in the cis configuration. G3 did not change the copy number of pOK. The pOK derivative containing G3 was destabilized by the presence of a compatible plasmid containing G3. G3 has four inverted repeats, two 14-base direct repeats, and three ORFs. Smaller fragment of G3 also had a stabilization effect and these studies showed that the ORF does not play any role in stabilization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yonemitsu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujihashi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Higuchi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Morishige
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mochida
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaji
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D007613:Kanamycin Resistance / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*; D012093:Replicon