Summary
We have isolated variants of the plasmid RTF which have received the transposon Tn9 from bacteriophage P1Cm. We have shown by the formation of heteroduplex molecules between one RTF: Tn9 derivative and R100.1 that Tn9 is homologous to the r-determinant region of R100.1 which carries the determinants for chloramphenicol resistance. This suggests that Tn9 was derived from an r-det like structure by deletion, possibly mediated by one of the flanking IS1 elements. In spite of the similarity in structure between Tn9 and r-det however, we have demonstrated two distinct differences in the behavior of these two elements: 1) Tn9 but nor r-det, is able to amplify, by a recA dependent mechanism, when cells harboring RTF::Tn9 are grown in the presence of chloramphenicol, and 2) Tn9, unlike r-det, does not form extrachromosomal circular molecules when RTF::Tn9 is tegrated into the bacterial chromosome.
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Communicated by J. Schell
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Chandler, M., Boy de la Tour, E., Willems, D. et al. Some properties of the chloramphenicol resistance transposon Tn9. Molec. Gen. Genet. 176, 221–231 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00273216
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00273216