Analysis of plasmid deletional instability in Bacillus subtilis.

Using a model system, we have studied deletion formation in Bacillus subtilis. When the staphylococcal plasmids pSA2100 (7.1 kilobases) and pUB110 (4.5 kilobases) were ligated to one another at their unique XbaI sites and transformed into either rec+ or recE4 strains of B. subtilis, an intramolecular recombination event usually occurred. Two plasmids, one of 2.6 kilobases and the other of 9.0 kilobases, were consistently isolated and shown by restriction enzyme analysis to be derived by recombination occurring in the pSA2100-pUB110 cointegrate. Analysis of the sequence of the junctions of the recombinant plasmids and of the crossover regions of the parental plasmids suggested that a reciprocal, conservative, intramolecular recombination event had occurred between short 18-base-pair homologous sequences that were oriented as direct repeats and bounded by regions of dyad symmetry. Evidence is presented that the above illegitimate recombination event is biased to occur intramolecularly and that randomly chosen direct repeats of either 22 or 29 base pairs are not sufficient to support recombination. The recombination event occurs in recA1, recB2, recD3, recE5, recL16, recM13, polA59, polA13, uvr-22, uvr-13, and stb mutants of B. subtilis and does not require that the competent state be established.