Mutations in direct repeat sequences and in a conserved sequence adjacent to the repeats result in a defective replication origin in plasmid R6K.

Plasmid pMM3 is a pBR322 derivative carrying the gamma origin of replication of the naturally occurring plasmid R6K. We have produced a gamma-origin mutant bank of this plasmid using the single-strand-specific mutagen sodium bisulfite. Members of this bank contain single or multiple mutations in the seven direct repeats and the flanking sequences in the gamma origin. Three mutants with defective gamma origins have been isolated from this mutant bank. Two of these direct repeat mutants, gamma 117 and gamma 120, are unable to replicate and also have lost the ability to bind the R6K initiation protein pi in vitro at one of the seven 22-base-pair direct repeats within their respective origins. Precise deletion of the damaged repeat of either of these mutants restores origin function, suggesting that the primary defect of these mutants involves a disruption of the normal spacing of pi binding and flanking sequences within the gamma origin. The third mutant, gamma 111, binds pi normally but replicates at a greatly reduced copy number due to a mutation near the seventh repeat. This mutation falls within a short sequence that appears to be conserved among a number of other plasmids that contain direct repeats within their origins of replication.