Abstract
The 6645-bp mercury resistance transposon of the chemolithotrophic bacterium Thiobacillus ferrooxidanswas cloned and sequenced. This transposon, named Tn5037, belongs to the Tn21branch of the Tn21subgroup, many members of which have been isolated from clinical sources. Having the minimum set of the genes (merRTPA), the mercury resistance operon of Tn5037is organized similarly to most of the Gram-negative bacteria meroperons and is closest to that of ThiobacillusT3.2. The operator-promoter region of the meroperon of Tn5037also has the common (Tn21/Tn501-like) structure. However, its inverted, presumably MerR protein binding repeats in the operator/promoter element are two base pairs shorter than in Tn21/Tn501. In the merA region, this transposon shares 77.4, 79.1, 83.2 and 87.8% identical bases with Tn21, Tn501, T. ferrooxidansE-15, and ThiobacillusT3.2, respectively. No inducibility of the Tn5037 meroperon was detected in the in vivo experiments. The transposition system (terminal repeats plus gene tnpA) of Tn5037was inactive in Escherichia coliK12, in contrast to its resolution system (ressite plus gene tnpR). However, transposition of Tn5037in this host was provided by the tnpAgene of Tn5036, a member of the Tn21subgroup. Sequence analysis of the Tn5037 ressite suggested its recombinant nature.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Rawlings, D.E. and Kusano, T., Molecular Genetics of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, Microbiol. Rev., 1994, vol. 58, pp.39-55.
Harahuc, L., Lizama, H.M., and Suzuki, I., Effect of Anions on Selective Solubilization of Zinc and Copper in Bacterial Leaching of Sulfide Ores, Biotechnol.Bioeng., 2000, vol. 69, pp.196-203.
Baldi, F. and Olson, G.J., Effects of Cinnabar on Pyrite Oxidation by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans and Cinnabar Mobilization by a Mercury-Resistant Strain, Appl. Environ.Microbiol., 1987, vol. 53, pp.772-776.
Hobman, J.L. and Brown, N.L., Bacterial Mercury Resistance Genes, Metal Ions in Biological Systems, Sigel, H. and Sigel, A., Eds., New York: Marcel Dekker, 1997, vol. 34, pp.527-567.
Liebert, C.A., Hall, R.M., and Summers, A.O., Transposon Tn21, Flagship of the Floating Genome, Microbiol.Mol. Biol. Rev., 1999, vol. 63, pp.507-522.
Kholodii, G., Yurieva, O., Mindlin, S., et al., Tn5044, a Novel Tn3 Family Transposon Coding for Temperature-Sensitive Mercury Resistance, Res. Microbiol., 2000, vol. 151, pp.291-312.
Inoue, C., Sugawara, K., and Kusano, T., Thiobacillus ferrooxidans mer Operon: Sequence Analysis of the Promoter and Adjacent Genes, Gene, 1990, vol. 96, pp.115-120.
Inoue, C., Sugawara, K., and Kusano, T., The merR Regulatory Gene in Thiobacillus ferrooxidans Is Spaced Apart from the mer Structural Genes, Mol. Microbiol., 1991, vol. 5, pp. 2707-2718.
Velasco, A., Acebo, P., Flores, N., and Perera, J., The mer Operon of the Acidophilic Bacterium Thiobacillus T3.2 Diverges from Its Thiobacillus ferrooxidans Counterpart, Extremophiles, 1999, vol. 3, pp.35-43.
Reniero, D., Mozzon, E., Galli, E., and Barbieri, P., Two Aberrant Mercury Resistance Transposons in the Pseudomonas stutzeri Plasmid pPB, Gene, 1998, vol. 208, pp.37-42.
Liebert, C.A., Wireman, J., Smith, T., and Summers, A.O., Phylogeny of Mercury Resistance (mer) Operons of Gram-Negative Bacteria Isolated from the Fecal Flora of Primates, Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 1997, vol. 63, pp. 1066-1076.
Liebert, C.A., Watson, A.L., and Summers, A.O., The Quality of merC, a Module of the mer Mosaic, J. Mol.Evol., 2000, vol. 51, pp.607-622.
Silverman, M. and Lundgren, D., Studies on the Chemoautotrophic Iron Bacterium Ferrobacillus ferrooxidans, J. Bacteriol., 1959, vol. 77, pp.642-647.
Eckhardt, T., A Rapid Method for Identification of Plasmid Deoxyribonucleic Acid in Bacteria, Plasmid, 1978, vol. 1, pp.584-588.
Lomovskaya, O.L., Mindlin, S.Z., Gorlenko, Zh.M., and Khesin, R.B., A Nonconjugative Mobilizable Broad Host Range Plasmid of Acinetobacter sp. That Determines HgCl2 Resistance, Mol. Gen. Genet., 1986, vol. 202, pp.286-290.
Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E.F., and Maniatis, T., Eds., Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Cold Spring Harbor Lab., 1989.
Kholodii, G.Ya., Mindlin, S.Z., Bass, I.A., et al., Four Genes, Two Ends, and a res Region Are Involved in Transposition of Tn5053: A Paradigm for a Novel Family of Transposons Carrying Either a mer Operon or an Integron, Mol. Microbiol., 1995, vol. 17, pp. 1189-1200.
Nakatsu, C., Ng, J., Singh, R., et al., Chlorobenzoate Catabolic Transposon Tn5271 Is a Composite Class I Element with Flanking Class II Insertion Sequences, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1991, vol. 88, pp. 8312-8316.
Kholodii, G.Ya., Yurieva, O.V., Gorlenko, Zh.M., et al., Tn5041: A Chimeric Mercury Resistance Transposon Closely Related to a Toluene Degradative Transposon Tn4651, Microbiology, 1997, vol. 143, pp. 2549-2556.
Grinsted, J., De La Cruz, F., and Schmitt, R., The Tn21 Subgroup of Bacterial Transposable Elements, Plasmid, 1990, vol. 24, pp.163-189.
Grinsted, J. and Brown, N.L.A., Tn21 Terminal Sequence within Tn501: Complementation of tnpA Gene Function and Transposon Evolution, Mol. Gen. Genet., 1984, vol. 197, pp.497-502.
Yurieva, O., Kholodii, G., Minakhin, L., et al., Intercontinental Spread of Promiscuous Mercury Resistance Transposons in Environmental Bacteria, Mol. Microbiol., 1997, vol. 24, pp.321-329.
Danilevich, V.N., Stepashin, Yu.G., Volozhantsev, N.N., and Volkovoi, K.I., Isolation and Characterization of Deletion Mutants of Temperature-Sensitive Plasmid pEG1, Genetika (Moscow), 1980, vol. 16, pp. 1958-1966.
Vieira, J. and Messing, J., The pUC Plasmids, an M13mp7-Derived System for Insertion Mutagenesis and Sequencing with Synthetic Universal Primers, Gene, 1982, vol. 19, pp.259-268.
Kholodii, G.Ya., Mindlin, S.Z., Gorlenko, Zh.M., et al., Molecular Genetic Analysis of the Tn5041 Transposition System, Genetika (Moscow), 2000, vol. 36, no. 4, pp.459-469.
Clennel A.M., Johnston B., and Rawlings D.E., Structure and Function of Tn5467, a Tn21-like Transposon Located on the Thiobacillus ferrooxidans Broad-hostrange Plasmid pTF-FC2, Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 1995, vol. 61, pp. 4223-4229.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kalyaeva, E.S., Kholodii, G.Y., Bass, I.A. et al. Tn5037, a Tn21-like Mercury Resistance transposon from Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. Russian Journal of Genetics 37, 972–975 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016746204241
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016746204241