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D Sherratt

Publications and source records attributed to D Sherratt.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Trans-complementable copy-number mutants of plasmid ColE1.

Plasmid ColE1, like many other small non-conjugative plasmids, is present in multiple copies (about 15 per chromsome equivalent) in Escherichia coli cells. Because of their high copy number, the replication of such plasmids has been described as 'relaxed', even though there is good evidence that it is strictly controlled: ColE1 derivatives have characteristic but different copy numbers and ColE1 copy-number mutants have been characterised. No plasmid-specified protein is essential for the replication of ColE1 and related plasmids, as extensive replication can occur in chloramphenicol-treated cells, in plasmid-free chloramphenicol-treated cells transfected with a hybrid ColE1/phage replicon and in vitro in extracts derived from plasmid-free cells. Nevertheless, it is possible that a plasmid-specified protein is involved in ColE1 replication control in viable cells. Here we show that deletion of a given non-essential region from ColE1-like plasmids results in a raised copy number. Such plasmids are stably maintained and have their copy number returned to normal when a complementing plasmid is present in the same cell, indicating that a plasmid-specified diffusible gene product regulates the plasmid content of ColE1-containing cells. Deletion of the equivalent region from the cloning vector pBR322 gives a derivative which has a raised copy number and which has also lost its origin for conjugal transfer; unlike pBR322, it cannot be mobilised.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMed1979

Polypeptides expressed in Escherichia coli K-12 minicells by transposition elements Tn1 and Tn3.

Escherichia coli K-12 minicells were employed to examine polypeptides encoded by plasmids carrying wild-type and mutant Tn1 or Tn3 transposition elements. Tn1- and Tn3-containing minicells express high levels of four transposon-specified polypeptides. Three, of molecular weights 30,000, 28,000, and 25,000, are related immunologically to beta-lactamase, the enzyme responsible for ampicillin hydrolysis. A fourth polypeptide of molecular weight 19,000 is encoded by the Tn1 or Tn3 region which spans the BamHI cleavage site. Mutant transposons which no longer produce this polypeptide transpose at higher than wild-type frequencies to give aberrant transposition products (Gill et al., J. Bacteriol. 136: 742--756, 1978; Heffron et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci U.S.A. 72:3632--3627, 1975). No expression could be detected from a region of the transposons extending from the inverted repeat sequence distal to the beta-lactamase gene to more than half the distance into the Tn1 or Tn3 sequence.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMed1978

Incompatibility and transforming efficiency of ColE1 and related plasmids.

Replicons derived from the ColE1 plasmid are incompatible with one another, but are compatible with their naturally occurring relatives ColK and CloDF13. The incompatibility results in loss, by segregation, of one or the other ColE1 plasmid. In most cases, the smaller derivatives tend to displace the larger ones, and the rate of displacement depends on the difference in size. One mini-plasmid retains only 19% of the sequences of ColE1, yet it exerts strong incompatibility: other ColE1 plasmids are rapidly lost when it is introduced into the host. The region essential for ColE1 incompatibility is deduced to lie within 700 base pairs of the origin of replication. The transforming efficiency of any ColE1 plasmid is markedly lowered when another incompatible replicon is resident in the competent cells, even when the transforming plasmid is much smaller than the resident. A model of incompatibility is proposed to account for these effects.

Colicins↗
PubMed1977

The transposon Tn1 as a probe for studying ColE1 structure and function.

Insertion of the transposable genetic element Tn1 into different sites of plasmid ColE1 results in a number of mutnat phenotypes. Whereas all plasmid examined were present in normal amount, all showed reduced immunity to killing by colicin E1. Of six insertions isolated after conjugation, five fail to produce colicin, are conjugally proficient (transmissible), and map within a 500 nucleotide region of the genome. The other is conjugally deficient, produces colicin normally and maps close to two others with a similar phenotype isolated after transformation. Of four others isolated after transformation, two have similar properties to the original five transmissible plasmids. The other two are nontransmissible and produce colicin. Non-transmissibility is correlated with reduced relaxation complex. Patterns of protein synthesis in minicells by ColE1 and ColE1 :: Tn1 plasmids have been examined: all ColE1 plasmids containing Tn1 show an altered pattern of ColE1 protein synthesis in addition to three presumptive Tn1-specified proteins, one of which is shown to be beta-lactamase. ColE1 :: Tn1 plasmids can be inserted into the conjugative plasmid R64drd11 to form a cointegrate in which ColE1 and Tn1 function can be expressed.

Colicins↗
PubMed1977

Complementation of transfer deficient ColE1 mutants.

The transfer defect of some ColE1 mutants is complemented by ColE1 or ColK, but not by ColE2. This implies that at least one ColE1-specified protein or RNA is normally needed for ColE1 conjugal transfer. The gene(s) postulated for this function lies within a region whose length is at most 50% of the genome.

Ampicillin↗
PubMed1976

ColE plasmid replication in DNA polymerase I-deficient strains of Escherichia coli.

Replication of the non-conjugative plasmids ColE1, ColE2 and Col3 has been examined in a number of DNA polymerase I-deficient strains, two of which contain the amber mutation polA1 along with either of two temperature-sensitive supF amber suppressors. These latter two strains produce reduced amounts of DNA polymerase I polymerizing activity of similar, if not identical properties to that produced by polA+ strains. Our results indicate that the ColE plasmids require different amounts of DNA polymerase I for stable plasmid maintenance. Moreover whereas all three plasmids are maintained in a strain defective in the 5' leads to 3' exonuclease activity of DNA polymerase I, ColE2 and ColE3 are not stably maintained between 30 degrees and 43 degrees in a number of DNA POLYMERASE I-deficient strains that are temperature-sensitive for ColE1 replication.

Alleles↗