Polar mobilization of the Escherichia coli chromosome by the ColE1 transfer origin

Mobilization of the plasmid ColE1 from cells containing a conjugative plasmid (such as F) requires the synthesis of ColE1 mob proteins, and the presence, in cis, of bom (basis of mobility), a region of ColE1 containing the origin of transfer (oriT). The process of ColE1 transfer is thought to resemble that of the conjugative plasmid F, although the plasmids share little sequence homology. In F, conjugation is preceded by a strand-specific nicking event at oriT. The nicked strand is then conducted to the recipient with the 5' end leading. This is believed also to occur with ColE1, but direct biochemical confirmation has been precluded by its small size (6.65 kb). To test this hypothesis genetically, a novel method, using a lambda dv-based vector, has been devised to site-specifically integrate bom (or any other cloned sequence) into the chromosome of Escherichia coli. When provided with suitable mobilizing plasmids, such strains were found to transfer the chromosome in a polar way. From these data, the orientation of transfer of ColE1 was deduced and shown to be analogous to F.