a cryptic plasmid (pSR1) isolated from Selenomonas ruminantium HD4 was previously cloned into the HindIII site of pBR322 and a restriction map was constructed using HindIII, ClaI, BamHI, and PvuII (S. A. Martin and R. G. Dean, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 55(12), 3035-3038, 1989). Analysis of the nucleotide sequence of pSR1 revealed two major open reading frames (ORFs) located in the minus strand at different frames. Analysis of ORF-1 revealed that it has 325 amino acids with a predicted MW of 36,588, and ORF-2 has 379 amino acids with a predicted MW of 42,651. The ORF-1 amino acids showed 30 to 32% sequence homology to the hypothetical protein YtqA in Bacillus subtilis and another hypothetical protein in the thermophilic bacterium Aquifex aeolicus. ORF-2 showed limited homology (23%) to the hypothetical protein ICFG in the photosynthetic cyanobacteria Synechocystis PCC6803. (C) 1999 Academic Press.