ISSN:
1365-2958
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
Notes:
The plasmid plP1066, harboured by a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain isolated in France, carries genes specifying β-lactamase. This plasmid undergoes numerous rearrangements. One of these was an insertion, between the genes binR and sin encoding resolvases, of a 16 kb element which displayed the characteristic features of a transposon. This putative transposon, named Tn5404, carried genes encoding proteins involved in its transposition, as well as a resolution system, which were indistinguishable from those of the S. aureus transposon Tn552. These were: p480 encoding a probable transposase, p271 encoding a putative ATP-binding protein, binL encoding a resolvase, and a resolution site, resL. In addition, Tn5404 carried aminoglycoside-resistance genes (aphA, str) and the insertion sequence IS1181. Tn5404 contained at its termini 116 bp imperfect inverted repeats, similar to those of Tn552, and was flanked by 6 bp direct repeats. Insertion of Tn5404 close to resR and to the structural and regulatory β-lactamase genes (blaZ, blal, blaR1) of plP1066, generated a 3.5 kb invertible segment flanked by inversely repeated resolution sites (resR, resL). This invertible segment, which carried p480, p271 and binL, generated Tn552 or Tn5404, depending on its orientation. Thus, these two transposons share their transposition and resolution systems.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2958.1995.mmi_17040769.x
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