Apparent Fusion of the TOL Plasmid with the R91 Drug Resistance Plasmid in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Abstract

The TOL catabolic plasmid was shown to be compatible with the R91 drug resistance plasmid. However, the TOL plasmid was extremely unstable in mutant PA03 of P. aeruginosa. By selecting for stabilization of the TOL plasmid in PA03 harbouring R91, it was possible to isolate a strain in which markers from both R91 and TOL appeared to exist in a single recombinant plasmid. This plasmid, pND3, encoded resistance to carbenicillin, was able to transfer at the same frequency as the R91 plasmid and encoded the ability to grow on m-toluate, p-toluate, m-xylene, p-xylene and toluene. In addition, it was shown to be incompatible with the NAH catabolic plasmid and it could be transferred by transduction. The TOL plasmid could stabilize in PA03 harbouring R91 without fusion with R91, and could stabilize in PA03 in the absence of R91. PA03 harbouring either the recombinant plasmid or the stable TOL plasmid in the absence of R91 could promote bacterial chromosome transfer between mutant derivatives of P. aeruginosa strain P AO.