Inactivation of the Serratia marcescens gene for the lipoprotein in Escherichia coli by insertion sequences, IS1 and IS5; sequence analysis of junction points.

A pBR322-derived plasmid pKEN221 carrying a Serratia marcescens lpp gene overproduces the outer membrane lipoprotein in an Escherichia coli lpp- cell. However, when this strain was continuously cultured in a rich medium for about thirty generations, many Lpp- mutants were accumulated. Out of six mutants analyzed, three were found to carry insertion mutation in the lpp gene in pKEN221. From resistance enzyme mapping and hybridization analysis of the mutant plasmid DNA, it was found that two mutants were caused by insertion sequence IS1 and one by IS5. Nucleotide sequence analysis of these mutant DNAs revealed that both IS1 and IS5 insertions occurred in the A-T rich 5' untranslated region of the lpp gene. While the IS1 insertion resulted in a direct duplication of a nine-base-pair sequence in the original pKEN221 DNA at the junction with IS1, the IS5 insertion resulted in a direct duplication of a four-base-pair sequence. IS5 was found to contain inverted-repeat sequences of twelve nucleotides at its exact ends. This is the first example of the nucleotide sequence analysis of an IS5 insertion mutation. By Southern blot hybridization, the E. coli chromosomal DNA was found to contain about ten copies of IS5.