Construction and Use of a System for Studying the Integration of Bacteroides Conjugative Transposons

In general, very little is known about the way in which Bacteroides conjugative transposons integrate into their chromosomal target sites, or what the nature of these sites are. In the past, this question has been very difficult to address due to the large size of the Bacteroides conjugative transposons. In this study, a miniature version (mini-element) of the Bacteroides conjugative transposon $\rm Tc\sp{r}$ ERL has been constructed. This mini-element contains the joined ends from the circular transfer intermediate of the full size $\rm Tc\sp{r}$ ERL element. The mini-element integrates in Bacteroides recipients containing the native $\rm Tc\sp{r}$ ERL element using integrase functions provided in trans. In addition to the miniature conjugative transposon, an essential component of this mini-element system is a Bacteroides recipient strain deficient in homologous recombination. For this reason, a Bacteroides recA strain was constructed and the RecA independence of conjugative transposition was demonstrated. The minielement system described here will serve as a prototype for additional studies seeking to determine the integration mechanism of the Bacteroides conjugative transposons.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Microbiology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Cooper, Andrew Joel

Contributors dc:contributor

• Salyers, Abigail A.

• Biology, Molecular

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9904422

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/86731