Replication of staphylococcal plasmid pT48.

Insertion of a synthetic DNA linker into the repL gene of staphylococcal plasmid pT48 inactivates the replication system. This defect can be complemented in trans by the presence of a pT48 repL gene, but not by the rep genes of the related Staphylococcus areus plasmids pSN2 and pOX1000. Comparison of the sequences of the three replication proteins indicates that specificity may be determined by a putative helix-turn-helix region.