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MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION AND COMPARISON OF PLASMID CONTENT IN SEVEN DIFFERENT STRAINS OF NEISSERIA GONORRHOEAE
Author(s) -
Aalen REIDUNN B.,
Gundersen WENCHE BLIX
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
acta pathologica microbiologica scandinavica series b: microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0108-0180
DOI - 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1987.tb03081.x
Subject(s) - plasmid , neisseria gonorrhoeae , biology , penicillin , microbiology and biotechnology , restriction enzyme , strain (injury) , genetics , restriction map , dna , antibiotics , anatomy
The plasmid content of one penicillin sensitive and six penicillin resistant strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae has been examined. All strains harbour a small, phenotypically cryptic plasmid of 4.1 kilo base pairs (kb). Four of the penicillin resistant strains carry a beta‐lactamase‐producing plasmid of 7.3 kb. One of these also carries a large plasmid of about 40 kb. The two remaining penicillin resistant strains harbour a smaller beta‐lactamase‐producing plasmid of 5.5 kb. The plasmids have been subjected to digestion with a number of restriction endonucleases, and their restriction maps have been compared. Judging by the maps, the cryptic (C‐) plasmids show great similarities. Except that two of them have 54 additional basepairs (bp), and two have a Hpall site instead of a Ddel site, no differences were found. The larger beta‐lactamase‐producing (B‐) plasmids have identical maps. The smaller seem to be homologous with the larger, except for a deletion of 1.8 kb. There is no correlation between the variant of C‐plasmid and type of B‐plasmid harboured in the penicillin resistant strains. The evolutionary implications suggested by this finding are discussed.