Balson D F, Shaw W V
Department of Biochemistry, University of Leicester, United Kingdom.
Plasmid. 1990 Jul;24(1):74-80. doi: 10.1016/0147-619x(90)90027-a.
Previous heteroduplex mapping studies showed that staphylococcal plasmid pCW7 belongs to the pT181 family of small antibiotic resistance plasmids which replicate by a rolling-circle mechanism. Replication in each case is initiated at the plasmid origin (ori) by a plasmid-encoded protein. Rep, which makes a sequence-specific single-stranded nick to form a covalent Rep-ori replication intermediate. A comparison of sequencing results for the repN gene of pCW7 with data for the products of five other homologous rep genes allows a prediction to be made of the segments of the primary structure of Rep which are likely to be responsible for plasmid-specific recognition of the ori region by each Rep protein.
