INSERTIONS OF THE TRANSPOSON Tn1 INTO THE PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA CHROMOSOME

V. Krishnapillai ¹, Pamela Royle ¹, and Joanna Lehrer ¹

¹ Department of Genetics, Monash University, Clayton 3168, Victoria, Australia

The transposon Tn1 has been translocated to the chromosome of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from plasmid R18, following hydroxylamine mutagenesis of the plasmid. Twelve insertions were mapped to six distinct sites distal to 55 min of the origin of chromosome transfer by the plasmid FP2. These map locations were confirmed by host chromosome mobilization tests mediated by plasmids R18 or R91–5, due to Tn1 homology between plasmid and host chromosome. All the Tn1 chromosomal inserts were retransposable to other plasmids (Sa, R931 and R38). The behavior of Tn1 in P. aeruginosa was very similar to its behavior in Escherichia coli with respect to regional specificity, orientation of insertion and in serving as regions of homology for host chromosome mobilization by plasmids. This last property has permitted the demonstration that Tn1 on R18 and R91–5 is in opposite orientation with respect to the origin of transfer (oriT) of the two plasmids.