Nucleotide sequence comparisons of plasmids pHD131, pJB1, pFA3, and pFA7 and beta-lactamase expression in Escherichia coli, Haemophilus influenzae, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

The sites of initiation for beta-lactamase mRNA transcription and the nucleotide sequences of beta-lactamase plasmids derived from Haemophilus and Neisseria species were determined. In N. gonorrhoeae, transcription from plasmid pFA3 was initiated from two sites, one located about 20 base pairs (bp) and the other 210 bp upstream of the beta-lactamase initiating codon, whereas in H. influenzae, transcriptional initiation from plasmid pHD131 occurred at two different sites, approximately 150 and 170 bp upstream of the initiating codon. When these plasmids were transformed into Escherichia coli, transcription was initiated at the 150- and 170-bp upstream sites in both plasmids. The nucleotide sequences of both plasmids within the noncoding region upstream of the transcriptional initiation site were identical and, except at two or three nucleotide positions, the sequences were also identical to the corresponding region of Tn3. At one of these positions there is a TA for CG substitution, which correlates in E. coli and Haemophilus sp. with the presence of two strong, overlapping beta-lactamase promoters, initiating transcription at the 150- and 170-bp upstream sites. Over a larger (875-bp) segment comprising most of the sequences of the tnpR and bla genes, the nucleotide sequences of both plasmids were also identical, and although this sequence differed from the corresponding Tn3 sequence at 18 sites, it was identical to that of Tn2, except at one site. The sequence of a second Haemophilus plasmid, pJB1, was identical to that of pHD131 in the same region, except at two nucleotides. All three plasmids were identical in nucleotide sequence in other TnA regions, as well as in regions flanking the TnA sequence, except that the Neisseria plasmid lacked a TnA segment of 3,298 bp [comprising the IR(L) and proximal sequences] together with approximately 273 bp of the non-TnA region adjacent to IR(L). The sequence of a second N. gonorrhoeae plasmid, pFA7, was identical to pFA3, except that the terminal, 3,299 TnA nucleotides were missing.