Nucleotide sequence of the region required for maintenance of colicin E1 plasmid.

Plasmids carrying various portions of colicin E1 plasmid (ColE1) DNA have been isolated in an attempt to determine the regions of ColE1 DNA which are required for maintenance of the plasmid in bacteria. To construct the plasmids, the DNA of a ColE1 derivative that contains a gene which controls ampicillin resistance was cleaved by the restriction endonuclease HaeII. The digestion products were joined by T4 DNA ligase and then used to transform bacteria to ampicillin resistance. The plasmid derivatives obtained in this way were always composed of certain HaeII segments. These contain approximately 10% of the ColE1 genome and include the origin of replication of ColE1. We presume that the region of ColE1 which is common to all these derivatives is required for maintenance of the plasmid. After a description of these results, the nucleotide sequence of this region is presented, and possible roles of the region in plasmid replication and maintenance are discussed.