title: Complete nucleotide sequence of pBMB67, a 67-kb plasmid from Bacillus thuringiensis strain YBT-1520.
abstract: The complete nucleotide sequence of a large (67kb) cryptic plasmid pBMB67 from Bacillus thuringiensis strain YBT-1520 was determined. Of the 74 predicted open reading frames (ORFs), 25 (34%) were assigned putative functions, 18 (24%) encoded conserved hypothetical proteins, and 31 (42%) had no homology to any genes present in the current open databases. The ORFs with similar functions were organized in a modular structure; thus, the DNA sequence of pBMB67 could be functionally divided into three modules, including a 39kb transfer region encoding homologs of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens VirB/D4 system components VirB1, VirB4, VirB11, and VirD4, as well as homologs of Gram-positive conjugation proteins. We also found a potential operon that was analogous to the Rap-Phr cassettes from Bacillus subtilis, which are involved in cell-cell communication and transcriptional regulation. Thus, we suggest that pBMB67 is likely to be implicated in cell-cell signaling and plays a role in the regulation of several cellular processes, with the production of exoprotease being one of the candidates.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology and National Engineering Research Center of Microbe Pesticides, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Liu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: Bao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qiyu
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fuping
authors.forename: Sun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ming
authors.forename: Huang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dafang
authors.forename: Liu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guiming
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ziniu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001413:Bacillus thuringiensis / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D009876:Operon; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*