Site-specific dissection of E. coli chromosome by lambda terminase.

We have succeeded the targeted cleavage of chromosomes by lambda terminase that introduces double-strand cleavages in DNA recognizing the lambda cos sequence. When chromosomal DNAs of various Escherichia coli K-12 strains were subjected to terminase digestion, all were found to contain two common cleavage sites. Therefore, DNAs from lambda lysogens in which lambda DNA was inserted at different chromosomal sites were specifically cleaved at one more additional site. The two sites, termed ecos1 and ecos2, were mapped at approximately 35.1' and 12.7' of E. coli genetic map. The ecos1 and ecos2 sites were included in qin and qsr' regions, respectively. Therefore, the cleavage sites were associated with cryptic prophages. Sequences at the ecos1 and ecos2 sites showed 98% homology to the lambda cos sequence, indicating high fidelity of sequence recognition by the terminase. Since the strategy for integration of a DNA segment into chromosomal DNA through homologous recombination has been established, the dissection method that uses lambda terminase should be applicable for gene mapping as well as construction of macrophysical maps of larger genomes.