title: Molecular characterization of the replicon of the Pediococcus pentosaceus 43200 pediocin A plasmid pMD136.
abstract: The pediocin A-encoding plasmid of Pediococcus pentosaceus 43200, pMD136, was characterized by restriction enzyme analysis. Analysis of its replicon was facilitated by the construction of a probe vector consisting of the Escherichia coli plasmid pSP72 and the cat gene from Staphylococcus aureus plasmid pC194. The replication region of pMD136 was localized on a 1.6-kb EcoRI/BglII fragment. Sequencing analysis revealed a non-coding region, repA, spanning the first 440 bp, followed by an open reading frame, repB, encoding a putative protein of 390 amino acids. The non-coding region contained two sets of 6-bp and two sets of 22-bp direct repeats and two sets of inverted repeats upstream of the open reading frame. Strong homology of the isolated replicon was found to theta-type replicons of Lactococcus lactis plasmids. Segregational stability assay suggested at least two regions as potentially involved in the stabilization of pMD136. The plasmid's strong homology to other theta-type replicons and its relatively high stability suggest that pMD136 belongs to the widespread family of theta-replication plasmids.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition, Otto Warburg Center for Agricultural Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kantor
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Montville
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mett
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shapira
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D000070017:Pediocins; D010376:Pediococcus / Q000235:genetics*; D010957:Plasmids; D012093:Replicon
chemical_list: D001430:Bacteriocins; D000070017:Pediocins; C094638:pediocin A