Summary
Compatibility and molecular studies were performed on a number of non auto-transferring plasmids for drug resistance and colicinogeny. The ampicillin (A) and streptomycin-sulphonamide (SSu) resistance determinants of Salmonella typhimurium type 29 are compatible with each other, and thus represent different compatibility groups. The laboratory-made resistance determinant ASu is incompatible with SSu and was used for compatibility studies with other determinants. Nineteen of 26 wild streptomycin-sulphonamide resistant strains of salmonellae and Escherichia coli carried non-transferring SSu determinants incompatible with ASu, and therefore probably phylogenetically related to the SSu determinant of type 29. A wild tetracycline resistance determinant (T) and the non-transferring colicinogeny determinants E1, E2 and E3 were compatible with each other and with A and SSu. A tentative classification can thus be suggested for these non-transferring plasmids which places A, SSu and its homologues, T, ColE1, ColE2 and ColE3 in separate compatibility groups. Molecular studies of ten of the plasmids showed that they consisted of covalentlyclosed circular DNA molecules with mean contour lengths between 2.22 and 4.53 μm. All were present in multiple copies per chromosome in E. coli K12.
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Smith, H.R., Humphreys, G.O. & Anderson, E.S. Genetic and molecular characterisation of some non-transferring plasmids. Molec. Gen. Genet. 129, 229–242 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00267915
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00267915