Cloning and expression in Streptomyces lividans of a paromomycin phosphotransferase from Streptomyces rimosus Forma paromomycinus.

The paromomycin producing organism Streptomyces rimosus forma paromomycinus is resistant to this antibiotic and contains a phosphotransferase which inactivates paromomycin. The gene encoding this enzyme has been inserted in the Streptomyces vector pIJ702 and then cloned in Streptomyces lividans, selecting for paromomycin-resistance. Three plasmids have been isolated and one of them, pMJ1, contains a 2.2 kb insert with a single HindIII restriction site. Insertion of foreign DNA in this site blocks the expression of the phosphotransferase enzyme indicating that it is within the cloned gene. These findings provide a new dominant selective marker for Streptomyces cloning vectors with the versatility of insertional inactivation.