Complete Nucleotide Sequence and Genetic Organization of the 210-Kilobase Linear Plasmid of Rhodococcus erythropolis BD2

ABSTRACT The complete nucleotide sequence of the linear plasmid pBD2 from Rhodococcus erythropolis BD2 comprises 210,205 bp. Sequence analyses of pBD2 revealed 212 putative open reading frames (ORFs), 97 of which had an annotatable function. These ORFs could be assigned to six functional groups: plasmid replication and maintenance, transport and metalloresistance, catabolism, transposition, regulation, and protein modification. Many of the transposon-related sequences were found to flank the isopropylbenzene pathway genes. This finding together with the significant sequence similarities of the ipb genes to genes of the linear plasmid-encoded biphenyl pathway in other rhodococci suggests that the ipb genes were acquired via transposition events and subsequently distributed among the rhodococci via horizontal transfer.

European Works Councils as an institution of European employee information and consultation: overview of typical features of national transposition provisions, outstanding legal questions and demands for amendments to EWC Directive 94/45/EC

The European Works Councils Directive owes the astonishing success of its transposition to the devising of a new mode of legislative implementation. The principle of double subsidiarity, with the progressive manner in which the provisions acquire a legally binding character, has led to a situation in which the aims of the Directive had been realised in part even before its formal implementation in the Member States. In this way it facilitates the emergence of a genuinely European practice of information and consultation. The article investigates to what extent the transposition regulation bear the stamp of national industrial relations traditions and hence diverge from one another — and from the prescriptions of the Directive — and this is demonstrated by taking one example of each of the five characteristic industrial relations models found in Europe. This exposition is followed by a discussion of certain problems that have arisen from the specific features of national transposition regulations in France, Ireland. Sweden, Spain and Germany in relation to the goal of harmonising the legislation on codetermination. Litigation is playing an increasingly significant role in the further development and harmonisation of European law on workplace codetermination, as evidenced by the initial outcomes of the Renault and Panasonic cases. Finally, the author formulates a number of demands which would contribute to strengthening the legal basis for effective codetermination and which should be borne in mind in the run-up to the revision of the Directive in autumn 1999.

Differential regulation of P and hobo mobile elements by two laboratory strains of Drosophila melanogaster

SummaryAnalysis of the transposition behaviour of the P and hobo elements borne by the 31·1/CyL4 MRF (P), 23·5Δ/CyL4 MRF (hobo) and 23·5*/Cy MRF (hobo) strains in the progeny of dysgenic crosses with two ME laboratory strains (Berlin-k and dp b en bw) at 25 °C revealed that: (a) the two ME laboratory strains affect differently the transposition rates of P and hobo elements. More precisely, P element transposition is higher in heterozygotes with dp b en bw than in those with Berlin-k. In contrast, the transposition rate of hobo elements is higher in Berlin-k than in dp b cn bw heterozygotes. (b) Like P, hobo has the potential to transpose at high frequencies and to nonhomologous chromosomes, (c) The dysgenically inactive hobo elements of the 3·11 MRF strain transpose more frequently than the dysgenically active hobo elements of the 23·5 MRF strains in certain crosses, (d) There are insertion hot spots for P and hobo elements. For the P elements there are enough data to suggest that the insertion hot spots are different in the two EM strains. The data are discussed on the basis of the involvement of putative host factors in transposition regulation of the P and hobo elements.