Involvement of IS1 in the dissociation of the r-determinant and RTF components of the plasmid R100.1

Abstract

The formation of the r-determinant pLC1 and of the RTF pAR132 from the composite plasmid R100.1 was investigated. The general location of IS1 sequences on the three plasmids was established by hybridization of lambdar14 CII::IS1 DNA to EcoRI generated fragments of the various plasmids separated by agarose gel electrophoresis and transferred directly to nitrocellulose filters. The position of IS1 sequences on these fragments and the homologies between fragments were analyzed by electron microscopy of heteroduplex molecules. The results show that the excision of both pLC1 and pAR132 occurred by an exchange between the two IS1 sequences present on R100.1.