A multimer resolution system contributes to segregational stability of the prototypical staphylococcal conjugative multiresistance plasmid pSK41

doi:10.1111/j.1574-6968.2008.01190.x

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Wiley InterScience

FEMS Microbiology Letters

Volume 284 Issue 1, Pages 58 - 67

Published Online: 19 May 2008

Published on behalf of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies

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RESEARCH LETTER

A multimer resolution system contributes to segregational stability of the prototypical staphylococcal conjugative multiresistance plasmid pSK41

Rebecca J. LeBard ¹ , Slade O. Jensen ¹ , Isabel A. Arnaiz ¹ , Ronald A. Skurray ¹ & Neville Firth ¹

¹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia

Correspondence: Neville Firth, School of Biological Sciences A12, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Tel.: +61 2 9351 3369; fax: +61 2 9351 771; e-mail: nfirth@bio.usyd.edu.au

Present address: Rebecca J. LeBard, School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia.

Editor: Ross Fitzgerald

KEYWORDS

Staphylococcus aureus • conjugative plasmid • multiresistance • resolvase

ABSTRACT

The 46-kb plasmid pSK41 is the prototype of a family of staphylococcal conjugative multiresistance plasmids. Sequence analyses have revealed the presence of a putative resolvase gene, res, on pSK41, and identical or related genes carried by other staphylococcal multiresistance plasmids. Carriage of the res region was found to ameliorate the accumulation of multimeric plasmid forms, and recombinant plasmids encoding a wild-type res gene exhibited greater plasmid segregational stability than counterparts carrying a nonfunctional mutant, irrespective of whether the cognate or a heterologous replication system and host was utilized. In vitro DNA-binding studies demonstrated that purified Res protein binds within the intergenic region upstream of the res coding sequence. Six copies of an imperfect 11-bp repeat sequence were identified within DNA sequences protected by Res in DNAseI footprinting studies, in an arrangement that suggests a typical resolution site organization consisting of three subsites.

Received 16 December 2007; accepted 7 April 2008.
First published online May 2008.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1574-6968.2008.01190.x About DOI