Analysis of a region in plasmid R386 containing two functional replicons

A miniplasmid has been obtained from R386 by ligating EcoRI fragments with a fragment carrying a kanamycin-resistance gene. It contains a 6.8-kb Eco fragment of R386 which hybridizes strongly with several IncFI plasmid DNAs but not with the primary or secondary replicons of the F plasmid. This mini-R386 is incompatible with certain IncFI plasmids, and it appears to be one example of a previously unidentified replicon widely distributed in the IncFI group. A region of R386 not closely linked to the 6.8-kb fragment is involved in copy number control of the mini-R386, and a sequence in the same region interacts with mini-F partition functions to cause incompatibility. The 6.8-kb fragment also restricts growth of T7 bacteriophage, and an adjacent fragment restricts phage T4 growth. A further R386 sequence, sharing homology with the F secondary replicon, is capable of autonomous replication. Hence R386, like F, contains at least two functional replicons.