title: pIT3, a cryptic plasmid isolated from the hyperthermophilic crenarchaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus IT3.
abstract: The plasmid pIT3 (4,967 bp) was isolated from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus, strain IT3. The completely sequenced plasmid contains six open reading frames (ORFs), the largest (ORF915) spanning more than half of the plasmid and encoding a putative protein with significant similarity to the helicase domain of viral and plasmid primase proteins, as well as to the newly described archaeal primase-polymerase domain. A small ORF, (ORF80), located upstream of this putative polymerase, encodes a putative copy number control protein. Specific transcripts corresponding to the ORF80 and ORF915, were detected by Northern blot analyses, and their transcriptional start sites were determined by primer extension. Moreover, the transfer and the maintenance of the plasmid in other Sulfolobus strains were demonstrated to be effective and stable.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Strutturale e Funzionale, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario Monte S. Angelo, Via Cinthia, 80126, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Santina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prato
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cannio
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Klenk
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Contursi
authors.forename: Mosè
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Simonetta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bartolucci
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D010957:Plasmids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D048229:Sulfolobus solfataricus / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal