Origin of small beta-lactamase-specifying plasmids in Haemophilus species and Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Abstract

Fifty-nine percent of unselected strains of Haemophilus parainfluenzae were found to carry small, phenotypically cryptic plasmid DNA species. Using filter blot hybridization, we found several plasmids which were homologous to the small beta-lactamase-specifying plasmids pJB1 and pFA7, which were originally isolated from Haemophilus ducreyi and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, respectively. Detailed filter hybridization studies combined with electron microscope heteroduplex analysis suggested that three cryptic plasmids are completely homologous to the non-TnA sequences of pJB1. One cryptic plasmid was found to be highly homologous to pJB603, a small beta-lactamase plasmid previously found in two isolates of H. influenzae. A second group of plasmids were found to carry sequences homologous to pJB1 and other sequences homologous to pJB603. These results strongly suggest that small beta-lactamase plasmids found in Haemophilus species and N. gonorrhoeae may have arisen by insertion of the transposable beta-lactamase-specifying element TnA into small, phenotypically cryptic replicons resident in H. parainfluenzae. Attempts to reproduce such a recombination event in the laboratory were not successful.