Isolation and physical characterization of streptomycete plasmids

Abstract

Covalently closed circular DNA was isolated from a strain of Streptomyces coelicolor ATCC 10147 and from a strain of Streptomyces coelicolor subspecies flavus ATCC 19894, using two different methods. The two plasmids were of uniform monomer size: 8.9 kb for pS 10147, the plasmid from S. coelicolor ATCC 10147, and around 125 kb for the plasmid from S. coelicolor ATCC 19894. A restriction enzyme map was constructed for pS 10147, using seven enzymes. Four of the enzymes, (BamHI, Bgl,II, PvuII, and XhoI) cut pS 10147 once while PstI made two cuts. The GC content of this plasmid was calculated to be 72%. The possible utilisation of pS 10147 as a cloning vector in Streptomyces is discussed.