Lodge J K, Weston-Hafer K, Berg D E
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Washington University Medical School, St. Louis, Missouri 63110.
Genetics. 1988 Nov;120(3):645-50. doi: 10.1093/genetics/120.3.645.
The procaryotic transposon Tn5 inserts into many different sites within a single gene, but some sites (hotspots) are targeted repeatedly. Hotspots are not closely related in sequence, but most have G/C pairs at the ends of the nine base pairs duplicated by Tn5 insertion. In pBR322, the major hotspot coincides with the "-10 region" of the tet promoter. We mutated the G/C pairs at this hotspot and assayed for insertion into hotspot I, resistance to tetracycline, and plasmid supercoiling. We found that changing the G/C pairs to A/T pairs reduced the frequency of insertion into the hotspot by at least fivefold. The reduction in hotspot use caused by these G/C to A/T changes was not attributable to changes in plasmid supercoiling or tet promoter strength.
原核转座子Tn5可插入单个基因内的许多不同位点,但有些位点(热点)会被反复靶向。热点在序列上并无紧密关联,但大多数在因Tn5插入而复制的9个碱基对末端具有G/C对。在pBR322中,主要热点与tet启动子的“-10区域”重合。我们对该热点处的G/C对进行了突变,并检测其插入热点I的情况、对四环素的抗性以及质粒超螺旋情况。我们发现,将G/C对替换为A/T对可使插入热点的频率至少降低五倍。这些由G/C到A/T的变化导致的热点使用频率降低并非归因于质粒超螺旋或tet启动子强度的变化。