Homology is not required for recombination mediated by DNA gyrase of Escherichia coli.

We have previously shown that DNA gyrase of Escherichia coli can promote recombination between heterologous DNAs in a cell-free system (Ikeda et al. 1982). In the present paper, we have studied the nucleotide sequences of several recombination junctions of lambda-pBR322 recombinants and found that there were not more than three-basepair homologies between the parental DNAs in six combinations of the lambda and pBR322 recombination sites. Based on this and previous results, we concluded that homology was not required for the DNA gyrase-mediated recombination. Furthermore, the structures of the recombinant DNAs we have analyzed suggest the occurrence of multiple cross-overs in our in vitro system.