Site-specific recombination between plasmids of Staphylococcus aureus

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Anomalous recombination between two similar but nonidentical, naturally occurring penicillinase plasmids, pI258 and pI524, leading to duplication and deletion of the beta-lactamase locus, is described. Physical mapping of these plasmids by heteroduplex and restriction analysis revealed that the beta-lactamase loci were homologous and in inverted orientation with respect to one another and that their respective locations were separated by a short region of homology. This intervening region of homology included one copy of a segment that was repeated on pI524 in inverted orientation at a distance of 2.2 kilobase pairs and contained a recognition sequence for a site-specific, rec-independent recombination function that caused reversible inversion of this segment on pI524. It is proposed that site-specific, intermolecular recombination involving this repeated sequence was responsible for the observed results.