Replication control of plasmid pLS1: the antisense RNA II and the compact rnaII region are involved in translational regulation of the initiator RepB synthesis.

Replication of the streptococcal plasmid pLS1 is controlled by two plasmid-encoded gene products: the repressor protein CopG and the antisense RNA, RNA II. Two different mutants in rnaII have been isolated. The 5'-end and the levels of RNA II synthesized by pneumococcal cells harbouring the wild-type pLS1 or mutant plasmids (affected in either genes copG or rnaII) were analysed. One of the rnaII mutants exhibited a high-copy-number phenotype, whereas an in vitro-constructed mutation, which affects the -10 region of the rnaII promoter, resulted in plasmids lacking copy-number phenotype. The latter mutation had a pleiotropic effect: It abolished RNA II synthesis, but it also affected the initiation of translation signals of the gene encoding the RepB initiator protein. Transcriptional and translational fusions, together with in vitro inhibition of RepB synthesis by specific oligonucleotides, showed translational inhibition of RepB synthesis by RNA II, perhaps by directly blocking the accessibility of the ribosomes to the repB initiation of translation signals.