title: Plasmids in Corynebacterium glutamicum and their molecular classification by comparative genomics.
abstract: Endogenous plasmids and selectable resistance markers are a fundamental prerequisite for the development of efficient recombinant DNA techniques in industrial microorganisms. In this article, we therefore summarize the current knowledge about endogenous plasmids in amino acid-producing Corynebacterium glutamicum isolates. Screening studies identified a total of 24 different plasmids ranging in size from 2.4 to 95 kb. Although most of the C. glutamicum plasmids were cryptic, four plasmids carried resistance determinants against the antibiotics chloramphenicol, tetracycline, streptomycin-spectinomycin, and sulfonamides. Considerable information is now available on the molecular genetic organization of 12 completely sequenced plasmid genomes from C. glutamicum. The deduced mechanism of plasmid DNA replication and the degree of amino acid sequence similarity among replication initiator proteins was the basis for performing a classification of the plasmids into four distinct C. glutamicum plasmid families.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Genomforschung, Universität Bielefeld, Universitätsstrasse 25, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany. andreas.tauch@genetik.uni-bielefeld.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tauch
authors.forename: Alfred
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pühler
authors.forename: Jörn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kalinowski
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thierbach
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003352:Corynebacterium / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid