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The rulB gene of plasmid pWW 0 is a hotspot for the site‐specific insertion of integron‐like elements found in the chromosomes of environmental P seudomonas fluorescens group bacteria
Author(s) -
Rhodes Glenn,
Bosma Hester,
Studholme David,
Arnold Dawn L.,
Jackson Robert W.,
Pickup Roger W.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/1462-2920.12345
Subject(s) - biology , orfs , plasmid , genetics , open reading frame , integron , virulence , gene , mobile genetic elements , operon , genomic island , peptide sequence , escherichia coli
Summary The rulAB operon of P seudomonas spp. confers fitness traits on the host and has been suggested to be a hotspot for insertion of mobile elements that carry avirulence genes. Here, for the first time, we show that rulB on plasmid pWW 0 is a hotspot for the active site‐specific integration of related integron‐like elements ( ILE s) found in six environmental pseudomonads (strains FH 1– FH 6). Integration into rulB on pWW 0 occurred at position 6488 generating a 3 bp direct repeat. ILE s from FH 1 and FH 5 were 9403 bp in length and contained eight open reading frames ( ORF s), while the ILE from FH 4 was 16 233 bp in length and contained 16 ORF s. In all three ILE s, the first 5.1 kb (containing ORF s 1–4) were structurally conserved and contained three predicted site‐specific recombinases/integrases and a tetR homologue. Downstream of these resided ORF s of the ‘variable side’ with structural and sequence similarity to those encoding survival traits on the fitness enhancing plasmid pGRT 1 ( ILE FH 1 and ILE FH 5 ) and the NR‐II virulence region of genomic island PAGI ‐5 ( ILE FH 4 ). Collectively, these ILEs share features with the previously described type III protein secretion system effector ILEs and are considered important to host survival and transfer of fitness enhancing and (a)virulence genes between bacteria.