Summary
We have previously shown that DNA gyrase of Escherichia coli can promote recombination between heterologous DNAs in a cell-free system (Ikeda et al. 1982). In the present paper, we have studied the nucleotide sequences of several recombination junctions of λ-pBR322 recombinants and found that there were not more than three-basepair homologies between the parental DNAs in six combinations of the λ and pBR322 recombination sites. Based on this and previous results, we concluded that homology was not required for the DNA gyrase-mediated recombination. Furthermore, the structures of the recombinant DNAs we have analyzed suggest the occurrence of multiple crossovers in our in vitro system.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albertini AM, Hofer M, Calos MP, Miller JH (1982) On the formation of spontaneous deletions: the importance of short sequence homologies in the generation of large deletion. Cell 29:319–328
Edlund T, Normark S (1981) Recombination between short DNA homologies causes tandem duplication. Nature 292:269–271
Gellert M, Fisher LM, Ohmori H, O'Dea MH, Mizuuchi K (1981) DNA gyrase: Site-specific interactions and transient double-strand breakage of DNA. Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol 45:391–398
Ikeda H, Aoki K, Naito A (1982) Illegitimate recombination mediated in vitro by DNA gyrase of Escherichia coli: Structure of recombinant DNA molecules. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 79:3724–3728
Ikeda H, Matsumoto T (1979) Transcription promotes recA-independent recombination mediated by DNA-dependent RNA polymerase in Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76:4571–4575
Ikeda H, Moriya K, Matsumoto T (1981) In vitro study of illegitimate recombination: Involvement of DNA gyrase. Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol 45:399–408
Kikuchi Y, Nash HA (1979) Nicking-closing activity associated with bacteriophage λ int gene product. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76:3760–3764
King SR, Krolewski MA, Marvo SL, Lipson PJ, Pogue-Geile KL, Chieng JH, Jaskunas SR (1982) Nucleotide sequence analysis of in vivo recombinants between bacteriophage λ DNA and pBR322. Mol Gen Genet 186:548–557
Kirkegaard K, Wang JC (1981) Mapping the topography of DNA wrapped around gyrase by nucleolytic and chemical probing of complexes of unique DNA sequence. Cell 23:721–729
Kobayashi I, Ikeda H (1977) Formation of recombinant DNA of bacteriophage lambda by recA function of Escherichia coli without duplication, transcription, translation, and maturation. Mol Gen Genet 153:237–245
Kobayashi I, Ikeda H (1978) On the role of recA gene product in genetic recombination: An analysis by in vitro packaging of recombinant DNA molecules formed in the absence of protein synthesis. Mol Gen Genet 166:25–29
Marvo SL, King SR, Jaskunas SR (1983) The role of short regions of homology in intermolecular illegitimate recombinations. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 80:2452–2456
Maxam A, Gilbert W (1977) A new method for sequencing DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 74:560–564
Morrison A, Cozzarelli NR (1979) Site-specific cleavage of DNA by E. coli DNA gyrase. Cell 17:175–184
Morrison A, Cozzarelli NR (1981) Contracts between DNA gyrase and its binding site on DNA: Features of symmetry and asymmetry revealed by protection from nucleases. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 78:1416–1420
Nash HA (1975) Integrative recombination of bacteriophage lambda DNA in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 72:1072–1076
Oka A, Nomura N, Morita M, Sugisaki H, Sugimoto K, Takanami M (1979) Nucleotide sequence of small ColE1 derivatives: Structure of the regions essential for autonomous replication and colicin E1 immunity. Mol Gen Genet 172:151–159
Sanger F, Coulson AR, Hong GG, Hill DF, Peterson GB (1983) Nucleotide sequence of bacteriophage λ DNA. J Mol Biol 162:729–773
Silverman M, Zieg J, Mandel G, Simon M (1981) Analysis of the functional components of the phase variation system. Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol 45:17–26
Sutcliffe JG (1979) Complete nucleotide sequence of the Escherichia coli plasmid pBR322. Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol 43:77–90
Sommer H, Schumacher B, Saedler H (1981) A new type of IS1-mediated deletion. Mol Gen Genet 184:300–307
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by M. Takanami
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Naito, A., Naito, S. & Ikeda, H. Homology is not required for recombination mediated by DNA gyrase of Escherichia coli . Molec Gen Genet 193, 238–243 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00330674
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00330674