Genetic diversity at alkB locus in Brucella abortus

DNA polymorphism of the alkB gene, a DNA repair gene, was assessed by PCR on Brucella abortus biovars 1 (strains 99, S19, 45/20, RB51 and 2308), 3 (Tulya strain), 5 (B3196 strain) and 6 (870 strain). A DNA repetitive element, named IS711, was detected in all studied biovars 1 and its complete nucleotide sequence was determined. We found that the element in alkB gene, bounded by 14 bp imperfect inverted repeats (IRs), is 840 bp long and appears to duplicate a consensus target site, CTAG. Analysing its nucleotide sequence of both forward and reverse strands, more than 10 open reading frames (ORFs) were found. Two potential transposase coding regions were chosen comparing all possible ORFs with the database. Comparing IS711 elements isolated from Brucella species, including both those characterized in our work and the published ones, differences in length and in nucleotide composition were observed among Brucella species, members of the same species and within the same strain. Our results confirm the heterogeneity of IS711 elements in Brucella genus and suggest the possibility to use this element to assess gene and genome diversity and to identify new molecular markers for Brucella species.