Tn5 lacZ translation fusion element: isolation and analysis of transposition mutants.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P L Nordmann.
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In Escherichia coli, the frequencies of IS50 and Tn5 transposition are greater in Dam- cells than in isogenic Dam+ cells. IS50 transposition is increased approximately 1,000-fold and Tn5 transposition frequencies are increased about 5- to 10-fold in the absence of Dam methylation. However, in cells that are deficient for both integration host factor (IHF) and Dam methylase, the transposition frequencies of IS50 and Tn5 approximate those found in wild-type cells. The absence of IHF alone has no effect on either IS50 or Tn5 transposition. These results suggest that IHF is required for the increased transposition frequencies of IS50 and Tn5 that are observed in Dam- cells. It is also shown that the level of expression of IS50-encoded proteins, P1 and P2, required for IS50 and Tn5 transposition and its regulation does not decrease in IHF- or in IHF- Dam- cells. This result suggests that the effects of IHF on IS50 and Tn5 transposition are not at the level of IS50 gene expression. Finally, IHF is demonstrated to significantly retard the electrophoretic mobility of a 289-base-pair segment of IS50 DNA that contains a putative IHF protein-binding site. The physiological role of this IHF binding site remains to be determined.
Two complementary 24 base single stranded oligonucleotides containing randomly located inosine residues were synthesized in vitro. Once annealed, the two oligonucleotides were cloned into derivatives of ColE1 and transformed into Escherichia coli. Sequence analysis of 157 clones yielded 305 mutations. The pattern of the mutations revealed the following: (1) The frequency of inosine induced mutations was significantly less than predicted from its content in the oligonucleotides; (2) Inosine incorporation resulted almost exclusively in base changes to guanine; (3) The mutation distribution is biased towards A/T to G/C substitutions; (4) There were reproducible position biases; and (5) There was a reproducible strand bias which was independent of the cassette orientation with respect to the plasmid origin of replication.
Insertion sequence 50 (IS50) transposition utilizes a 19-base-pair "outside" end and a 19-base-pair "inside" end in inverted orientation relative to each other, whereas transposon 5 (Tn5) transposition utilizes two inverted outside ends. The frequency of transposition events that involve an inside end is regulated 1000-fold by the host dam methylase system. The end sequence requirements for transposition and its regulation by dam methylase were analyzed in Escherichia coli by generating random single base pair mutations in either an IS50 inside end or outside end placed in inverted orientation with respect to an unmutagenized outside end. The mutations were then isolated, assayed for transposition phenotype, and sequenced. Mutations were isolated at 15 of the 19 sites in the outside end. All of these mutations except those at position 4 decreased transposition. Mutations at position 4 (which is the only nonidentical base pair in a region of homology between the outside and inside ends) had no effect on transposition. Mutations were isolated at 11 of the 19 sites in the inside end. All of these mutations, including one at position 4, decreased transposition in dam- cells. Mutations at position 10 (within a dam recognition sequence) and 2 (not within a dam recognition sequence) reduced the magnitude of dam regulation. A mutation within a dam recognition sequence adjacent to the required 19 base pairs of the inside end did not reduce the magnitude of dam regulation.