Characterization of a novel cryptic plasmid, pHLHK26, in Laribacter hongkongensis

New Microbiol. 2007 Apr;30(2):139-47.

Abstract

We report the complete nucleotide sequence and characterization of a cryptic plasmid, pHLHK26, recovered from a strain of Laribacter hongkongensis isolated from a patient with community acquired gastroenteritis. pHLHK26 consists of 8700 bp, with G + C content 51.3%. The copy number (mean +/- SD) is 0.57 +/- 0.07 and it is stable after four passages (about 240 generations) in the absence of selection. There is a predicted origin of replication that consists of a DnaA box and five 22-bp direct repeats. pHLHK26 has four ORFs with two genes encoded in the sense direction and the other two in antisense direction. These four ORFs encode a putative plasmid partitioning protein of the ParA family, a putative protein that contains putative ADP-ribose 1"-phosphatase activity belonging to the Appr-1-p processing enzyme family, a putative recombinase (TniR) of the resolvase/invertase family, and a putative replication protein, respectively. We speculate that pHLHK26 is a theta, possibly Class A, replicative plasmid, as it contains an origin of replication with AT-rich region, a number of iterons and a DnaA box and a gene that encodes a replicative protein most homologous to those of other theta replicative plasmids and it shares eight of the nine positions of the consensus sequence TTAT(C/A)CA(C/A)A (TTTTCCACA in pHLHK26) in the DnaA boxes observed in other classical examples of Class A plasmids of this group.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
  • Base Composition
  • Base Sequence
  • Binding Sites / genetics
  • Community-Acquired Infections / microbiology
  • Consensus Sequence
  • DNA Helicases / genetics
  • DNA, Bacterial / chemistry
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / genetics
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Gastroenteritis / microbiology
  • Humans
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Neisseriaceae / genetics*
  • Neisseriaceae / isolation & purification
  • Open Reading Frames
  • Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases / genetics
  • Phylogeny
  • Plasmids / genetics*
  • Recombinases / genetics
  • Replication Origin / genetics
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Trans-Activators / genetics

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • DnaA protein, Bacteria
  • Recombinases
  • Trans-Activators
  • chromosome partition proteins, bacterial
  • replication initiator protein
  • Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases
  • DNA Helicases

Associated data

  • GENBANK/DQ341277