title: Replication and maintenance of lambda plasmids devoid of the Cro repressor autoregulatory loop in Escherichia coli.
abstract: Plasmids derived from bacteriophage lambda are known as lambda plasmids. These plasmids contain the ori lambda region and lambda replication genes O and P. Typical lambda plasmids also contain the cro gene, the product of which is a repressor of the pR promoter when present at relatively high concentrations. These genes stably maintain the plasmid in Escherichia coli at copy numbers of 20 to 50 per cell. According to a generally accepted model, stable maintenance of lambda plasmids is possible due to the Cro repressor autoregulatory loop (the cro gene is under control of pR). Here we demonstrate that lambda plasmids devoid of the Cro autoregulatory loop can also be stably maintained in E. coli strains. We present data for two such plasmids: pTC lambda 1 in which the pR-cro region has been replaced by the ptetA promoter and the tetR gene (coding for the TetR repressor), and a standard lambda plasmid with inactivated cro gene (lambda cro-null plasmid). Thus, the presence of the Cro repressor autoregulatory loop does not appear to be essential to the maintenance of lambda plasmids in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Gdańsk, Poland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herman-Antosiewicz
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Srutkowska
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wegrzyn
mesh_terms: D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000235:genetics*; D004261:DNA Replication; D004279:DNA, Viral; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000821:virology; D010957:Plasmids; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D013696:Temperature; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D054334:Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins
chemical_list: C024013:DNA replication complex protein, Bacteriophage lambda; D004279:DNA, Viral; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins; D054334:Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins; C016649:phage repressor proteins