Abstract
PLASMIDS contribute to the metabolic versatility of soil pseudomonads by specifying enzymes responsible for the oxidation of unusual organic substrates1,2. TOL plasmids determine an inducible sequence of enzymes that oxidise toluene, m-xylene, and p-xylene via alcohol and aldehyde intermediates to benzoate, m-toluate, and p-toluate, respectively, which are further metabolised by ring fission via the meta (or α-ketoacid) pathway—the enzymes of which also plasmid determined3–5. TOL plasmids found in soil Pseudomonas strains6 are notably heterogeneous in molecular properties7. Analogous observations on the heterogeneity of plasmids carrying the genes for TEM-type β-lactamase8 led to the demonstration that this gene was promiscuously transposable between plasmids of Gram-negative bacteria9. We have found that tol genes can be transposed to other plasmids, including the broad host range plasmid RP4. Such a derivative, RP4-tol, allows the expression of a specialised Pseudomonas pathway to be studied in Escherichia coli. In this foreign host tol gene function can be detected but at a much lower level than in Pseudomonas.
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JACOBY, G., ROGERS, J., JACOB, A. et al. Transposition of Pseudomonas toluene-degrading genes and expression in Escherichia coli. Nature 274, 179–180 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/274179a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/274179a0
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