Role of countertranscript RNA in the copy number control system of an IncB miniplasmid

Transcriptional mapping studies of the IncB minireplicon pMU720 demonstrated the existence of a long RNA molecule, RNA II, whose 5' portion is complementary to the product of the incompatibility gene RNA I. By using gene fusion and transcriptional fusion plasmids, it was shown that RNA I regulated the expression of the RNA II gene product and that it did so primarily at the level of translation. The target of RNA I was mapped to lie within a 216-base region of RNA II containing the sequence complementary to RNA I. Introduction of the target for RNA I in trans increased the copy number of an IncB minireplicon, indicating that RNA I and RNA II form the basis of the copy number control system of IncB plasmids.