Nucleotide sequence analysis of Tn4551: use of ermFS operon fusions to detect promoter activity in Bacteroides fragilis.

The Bacteroides pBI136 clindamycin resistance (Ccr) determinant from the composite transposon Tn4551 was cloned onto the shuttle plasmid pFD160, and the regions necessary for expression in Bacteroides fragilis were determined. These results suggested that transcriptional regulatory signals required for Ccr were located in the Tn4551 direct repeat sequence (DRS) adjacent to the resistance determinant. Analysis of the nucleotide sequence of this region revealed that the Ccr structural gene, 798 base pairs (bp), was located 17 bp from the terminus of the DRS and that this gene (ermFS) differed from ermF (pBF4) by one amino acid. The DRS element was found to be 1,155 bp and appeared to contain the ermFS transcription start signals. The DRS structure was typical of insertion sequence elements isolated from other bacterial species, and its termini were characterized by 25-bp regions of imperfect dyad symmetry. The DRS was dominated by a 978-bp open reading frame, which terminated in the left inverted repeat 27 bp from the ermFS start codon, and weak amino acid sequence homology was observed with the putative transposase of IS3. Promoter activity of the DRS in B. fragilis was demonstrated by in vitro construction of operon fusions with a promoterless ermFS gene followed by transformation of the recombinant plasmids with selection for resistance to clindamycin. The location of one DRS promoter was identified by using the ermFS fusions and then verified by in vitro mutagenesis of the site with single-stranded linkers. Northern blot (RNA blot) analysis of total RNA from B. fragilis strains containing pBI136 or ermFS recombinant plasmids confirmed the location of this promoter and indicated that it was used in vivo by Tn4551. A second DRS promoter, which activated ermFS transcription by readthrough of the large DRS open reading frame, was also identified by the Northern blot analysis. The bicistronic ermFS message was not observed in strains containing a complete copy of Tn4551, and the possibility of transcriptional regulation is discussed.