• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.457-463
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• 1999

The physical map of bacteriophage $\PhiFC1$ DNA was constructed with the restriction endonucleases SalI, BamHI, EcoRI, XbaI, and AvaI. The 40.5-kb DNA restriction map is shown to be circularly permuted representing the headful packaging mechanism of the phage. The DNA restriction fragments containing the packaging initiation site(pac) was localized on the restriction map and the nucleotide sequences of the region were analyzed. Four open reading frames (ORFs), following one another with the same orientation, were found at the region. The 2nd ORF (ORF-ts) has significant amino acid sequence homologies to the previously known terminase small subunits of other bacteriophages. The putative terminase small subunit gene has a presumptive NTP-hydrolysis motif and a helix-turn-helix motif. The cleavage site for the first round of packaging was found to be located at the coding sequence of the putative terminase small subunit gene. The fourth ORF, even if partially sequenced, has a good amino acid sequence homology to the portal vertex proteins of other bacteriophages representing the evolutionarily conserved arrangements of genes near the pac site of this bacteriophage, $\PhiFC1$.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.342-347
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• 2007

Bacteriophage ${\Phi}FC1$ integrase (MJ1) was previously shown to perform a site-specific recombination between a phage attachment site (attP) and a host attachment site (attB) in its host, Enterococcus faecalis, and also in a non-host bacterium, Escherichia coli. Here, we investigated biochemical features of MJ1 integrase. First, MJ1 integrase could perform in vitro recombination between attP and attB in the absence of additional factors. Second, MJ1 integrase interacted with att sites. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays and DNase I footprinting revealed that MJ1 integrase could efficiently bind to all the att sites and that MJ1 integrase recognized relatively short sequences (${\sim}50bp$) containing an overlapping region within attB and attP. These results demonstrate that MJ1 integrase indeed catalyzes an integrative recombination between attP and attB, the mechanism of which might be simple and unidirectional, as found in serine integrases.

• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.448-454
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• 1996

Bacteriophage ${\phi}FC1$ is a temperate phage which was identified as a prophage in the Enterococcus faecalis KBL703 chromosome. Phage ${\phi}FC1$ integrates into the host chromosome by site-specific recombination. The phage attachment site P (attP) was localized within the 0.65-kb XhoI-HindIII fragment and the nucleotide sequence of the region was determined. An open reading frame (mj1) which adjoined the phage attachment site encoded a deduced protein related to the site-specific recombinase family. The organization of this region was comparable to other site-specific recombination systems. The molecular weight of the expressed MJ1 in E. coli was in good agreement with the predicted 53,537 Da of the mj1 gene product. Elucidation of the phage-specific integration process in this study would provide useful genetic tools such as a chromosomal integration system.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.337-344
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• 2011

Integrase MJ1 from the bacteriophage ${\Phi}FC1$ carries out recombination between two DNA sequences (the phage attachment site, attP and the bacterial attachment site, attB) in NIH3T3 mouse cells. In this study, the integration vector containing attP, attB and the integrase gene MJ, was constructed. The integration mediated by integrase MJ1 in Escherichia coli led to excision of LacZ. Therefore, the frequency of integration was measured by the counting of the white colony, which is detectable on X-Gal plates. The extrachromosomal integration in NIH3T3 mouse cells was monitored by the expression of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a reporter. To demonstrate integration mediated integrase MJ1 in NIH3T3 cells, vectors containing attP and attB were co-transfected into NIH3T3 cells. The integration was confirmed by fluorescent microscopy. The expression of GFP was induced in NIH3T3 cells expressing MJ1 without accessory factors. By contrast, the excision mediated by the MJ1 between attR and attL had no effect on the expression of GFP. These results suggest that integrase MJ1 may enable a variety of genomic modifications for research and therapeutic purposes in higher living cells.