Megaplasmids in Thermus oshimai isolates from two widely separated geographical areas: restriction fragment profiling and DNA homology

Abstract

Megaplasmid DNA was detected in ten isolates belonging to the recently described thermophilic eubacterial species Thermus oshimai and isolated from hot springs in Portugal (eight isolates) and Iceland (two isolates). The estimated size of the large plasmids purified from T. oshimai SPS-18 from S. Pedro do Sul, Portugal, and from isolate JK-91 from Hveragerdhi-Hengill, Iceland, was 214 and 275 kb, respectively. No sequence homologous to isolate SPS-18 megaplasmid is present in chromosomal DNA as indicated by Southern hybridization analysis. Overall examination of the HindIII fragment profiles of megaplasmid DNAs purified from isolates from the same geographical area gave similar but not always identical restriction profiles on agarose gels. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was higher for megaplasmids present in isolates purified from the Portuguese and Icelandic isolates than for megaplasmids from the same hot spring. Megaplasmid RFLP correlated with previous results obtained on the polymorphism of macrorestriction patterns of whole genomic DNA and with the RFLP of co-resident small plasmid DNA that was found in one half of the isolates examined. The 16-kb HindIII–HindIII fragment from isolate SPS-18 megaplasmid showed DNA–DNA homology with restriction fragments of similar size generated by the large plasmids present in all the other isolates, even in those from hot springs of widely separated geographical areas. This suggests a high degree of sequence conservation in T. oshimai megaplasmids.