A pathway for the evolution of the plasmid NTP16 involving the novel kanamycin resistance transposon Tn4352.

The kanamycin resistance determinant of the drug resistance plasmid NTP16 has been characterized by DNA sequencing and has been shown to possess all of the structural features of a transposable element. It is made up of a 1040-bp central region encoding a protein identical to the aminoglycoside 3'-phosphotransferase of Tn903, flanked by direct repeats of an element identical to IS26. This novel transposon has been designated Tn4352. Analysis of the host sequences flanking the transposon reveal that they are derived from a Tn3-like element, and contain no 8 base pair target size duplications which are normally created by the insertion of IS26-like elements. Comparison to the Tn3 sequence shows that the flanking sequences are noncontiguous within Tn3, with the clear implication that NTP16 has evolved from a similar plasmid encoding only ampicillin resistance (presumably NTP1) by the insertion of Tn4352 into the Tn3-like element, followed by a substantial deletion. The sequence analysis suggests that the initial insertion was into the tnpR gene of the ampicillin transposon, followed by a deletion extending to a specific site within tnpA.