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Journal article

Bleomycin-resistance gene derived from the transposon Tn5 confers selective advantage to Escherichia coli K-12.

  • Blot M Department of Microbiology, Biocenter of the University, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Meyer J
  • Arber W
  • 1991-10-15
Published in:
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - 1991
Bleomycin
Cell Death
Chromosome Deletion
Cloning, Molecular
DNA Transposable Elements
Drug Resistance, Microbial
Escherichia coli
Genes, Bacterial
Mutation
Operon
Phenotype
R Factors
Restriction Mapping
English The plasmid pRAB2 contains a silent operon derived from the transposon Tn5 and carrying the gene neo for neomycin-kanamycin resistance and a truncated ble gene (ble333) for bleomycin resistance. Spontaneous mutants that express the two resistances provide Escherichia coli cells an improved fitness during the phase of decline in the absence of the antibiotics. It is shown that the ble333 gene product is responsible for this better fitness. These results can explain a previously described selective advantage attributed to the presence of Tn5. The improved fitness of bleomycin-resistant bacteria is proposed to relate to DNA repair by the ble gene product. The consequences of the presence of an accessory gene improving fitness are discussed in terms of evolutionary stable strategy of a transposon in populations of E. coli.
Language
  • English
Open access status
bronze
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Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/46987
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