Site-specific recombination by the DDE family member mobile element IS30 transposase

doi:10.1073/pnas.2436518100

Site-specific recombination by the DDE family member mobile element IS30 transposase

Environmental Biosafety Research Institute, Agricultural Biotechnology Center, 4 Szent-Györgyi Albert Street, H-2100, Gödöllõ, Hungary

Communicated by Werner Arber, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, October 8, 2003 (received for review June 17, 2003)

Abstract

DNA rearrangements carried out by site-specific recombinases and transposases (Tpases) show striking similarities despite the wide spectrum of the catalytic mechanisms involved in the reactions. Here, we show that the bacterial insertion sequence (IS)30 element can act similarly to site-specific systems. We have developed an inversion system using IS30 Tpase and a viable λ phage, where the integration/excision system is replaced with IS30. Both models have been proved to operate analogously to their natural counterpart, confirming that a DDE family Tpase is able to fulfill the functions of site-specific recombinases. This work demonstrates that distinction between transposition and site-specific recombination becomes blurred, because both functions can be fulfilled by the same enzyme, and both types of rearrangements can be achieved by the same catalytic mechanisms.

Footnotes

↵ † To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: olasz{at}abc.hu.
Abbreviations: IS, insertion sequence; IR, inverted repeat: IRL, left IR end; IRR, right IR end; Tpase, transposase; Recase, site-specific recombinase; TB, Tryptone broth.