Transposition of a duplicate antibiotic resistance gene and generation of deletions in plasmid R6K.

Transformation experiments showed that spontaneous deletions which result in loss of streptomycin resistance and an increase in conjugal transfer efficiency are present at a frequency of about 10(-4) in plasmid molecules of R6K. Similar deletions were thus readily selected by conjugal transfer of R6K, and their appearance was dependent upon recA+ activity in either donor or recipient host. The deoxyribonucleic acid segment deleted in four mutants examined was concluded to extend from the same terminus of the transposon, TnA, in the same direction, but to different extents, and to retain the TnA region intact. Insertions of a duplicate TnA element were found in R6K plasmids isolated from strains selected for increased ampicillin resistance, which were unstable in recA+ strains. In four plasmids examined after transfer to a recA host, an inverted repeat of the preexisting TnA element was shown to have been inserted at a similar location and was in two instances associated with deletions which extended from the same direction as those described above. The deletions are ascribed to the result of recA+-dependent recombination between direct repeats of TnA.