NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE OF THE REP GENE OF STAPHYLOCOCCAL PLASMID-PCW7

Previous heteroduplex mapping studies showed that staphylococcal plasmid pCW7 belongs to the pT181 family of small antibiotic resistance plasmids which replicate by a rolling-circle mechanism. Replication in each case is initiated at the plasmid origin (ori) by a plasmid-encoded protein, Rep, which makes a sequence-specific single-stranded nick to form a covalent Rep-ori replication intermediate. A comparison of sequencing results for therepN gene of pCW7 with data for the products of five other homologousrep genes allows a prediction to be made of the segments of the primary structure of Rep which are likely to be responsible for plasmid-specific recognition of theori region by each Rep protein. © 1990 Academic Press, Inc. All rights reserved.