ABSTRACT
The nucleotide sequence of Streptomyces lividans linear plasmid SLP2 consists of 50,410 bp (C. H. Huang, C. Y. Chen, H. H. Tsai, C. Chen, Y. S. Lin, and C. W. Chen, Mol. Microbiol. 47:1563-1576, 2003). Here we report that the basic SLP2 locus for plasmid replication in circular mode resembles that of Streptomyces linear plasmids pSLA2 and SCP1 and comprises iteronsSLP2 and the adjacent rep
SLP2
gene. More efficient replication additionally required the 47-bp sequence between bp 581 and 628 upstream of the iterons. Replacement of either the iterons or the rep gene of SLP2 by the corresponding genes of pSLA2 or SCP1 still allows propagation in Streptomyces, although the transformation frequencies were 3 orders of magnitude lower than the original plasmids, suggesting that these plasmids share similar replication mechanisms. To replicate SLP2 in linear mode, additional SLP2 loci—either mtap
SLP2
/tpg
SLP2
or mtap
SLP2
/ilrA
SLP2
—were required. IlrASLP2 protein binds specifically to the iteronsSLP2 in vitro. Interactions were detected between these SLP2-borne replication proteins (MtapSLP2, TpgSLP2, and IlrASLP2) and the telomeric replication proteins (TpgL, TapL, and TpgL) of the S. lividans chromosome, respectively, but the SLP2 proteins failed to interact. These results suggest that SLP2 recruits chromosomally encoded replication proteins for its telomere replication.