Nocardioform arsenic resistance plasmids and construction of Rhodococcus cloning vectors

One of a number of large nocardioform plasmids previously obtained by a primarily genetic approach was reduced in size to about approximately 11 kb. This smaller plasmid possessed determinants for resistance to sodium arsenate and sodium arsenite, as well as immunity to nocardiophage Q4. It was joined to an Escherichia coli-positive selection vector constructed by M. Zabeau and colleagues, which had the EcoR1 endonuclease gene placed under the control of the PR promoter of lambda as well as a bla determinant. The resulting shuttle vector of about 14.6 kb was maintained in E. coli and in several strains of Rhodococcus. The vector was efficient in cloning DNA without prior alkaline phosphatase treatment, as a result of the presence of the positive selection function. This function was not significantly expressed in Rhodococcus, and the presence of the nocardioform resistance determinants led to no increase in arsenate or arsenite resistance in E. coli. The presence of the bla gene resulted in an increase of about threefold in ampicillin resistance in Rhodococcus strains.