Cloning and analysis of the rnc-era-recO operon from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The me operon from Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been cloned and characterized. The three genes comprising this operon, me, era, and recO, are arranged similarly to those in some other gram-negative bacteria. Multicopy plasmids carrying the me operon of P. aeruginosa functionally complement mutations of the me, era, and recO genes in Escherichia coli. In particular, the P, aeruginosa era homolog rescues the conditional lethality of era mutants in E, coli, and the presumptive protein has 60% identity with the Era of E. coli. We discuss these data and evidence suggesting that a GTPase previously purified from P. aeruginosa and designated Pra is not an Era homolog.