• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.393-399
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• 1998

Enterobacter sp.B54 which shows antagonistic activity to Phytophthora capsici on potato dextrose agar was selected among 112 strains isolated from Korean soil. After Tn5 lac-induced mutants were obtained through Pl :: Tn5 lac mutagenesis, 2 mutants for loss of antibiosis and 1 mutant for increased antibiosis were screened by using in vitro fungal inhibition assay. When the 3 mutants affected in antibiosis were analyzed by southern hybridization with pRZ102 (ColEl :: Tn5) as a probe, its results suggest that Tn5 lac was randomly inserted into different chromosomal sites in these mutants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.217-228
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• 2009

Mobile genetic segments, or transposons, are also referred to as jumping genes as they can shift from one position in the genome to another, thus inducing a chromosomal mutation. According to the target site-specificity of the transposon during a transposition event, the result is either the insertion of a gene of interest at a specific chromosomal site, or the creation of knockout mutants. The former situation includes the integration of conjugative transposons via site-specific recombination, several transposons preferring a target site of a conserved AT-rich sequence, and Tn7 being site-specifically inserted at attTn7, the downstream of the essential glmS gene. The latter situation is exploited for random mutagenesis in many prokaryotes, including IS (insertion sequence) elements, mariner, Mu, Tn3 derivatives (Tn4430 and Tn917), Tn5, modified Tn7, Tn10, Tn552, and Ty1, enabling a variety of genetic manipulations. Randomly inserted transposons have been previously employed for a variety of applications such as genetic footprinting, gene transcriptional and translational fusion, signature-tagged mutagenesis (STM), DNA or cDNA sequencing, transposon site hybridization (TraSH), and scanning linker mutagenesis (SLM). Therefore, transposon-mediated genetic engineering is a valuable discipline for the study of bacterial physiology and pathogenesis in living hosts.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.110-113
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• 1995

Transposon Tn5 was used to induce random insertional mutations in Bradyrhizobium japonicum, a soybean endosymbiont. By genomic Southern blot analysis, transposition events were found to have occurred randomly throughout the B. japonicum genome. After screening 3, 626 mutants by auxotrophy test, a histidine auxotroph was isolated. Upon plant infection test, the His mutant showed a 3~4 day delay in nodule formation.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 1994

Pseudomonas fluorescens Biovar III strains S-2 antagonistic to Rhizoctonia solani was subjected to Tn5 mutagenesis by the transposon vector pGS9. Ampicillin and kanamycin resistant (Ampr, Kmr) transconjugants were recovered at a frequency of 1.3$\times$10-7 per initial recipient cell, when recipient cells were washed twice in TE buffer before conjugation. Of the ca. 3000 transconjugants, a frequency of noninhibitory (Inh-), nonfluorescent (Flu-) and auxotorphic (Pro-) mutants were 0.27%, 0.47% and 0.40%, respectively. In these mutants, all Inh- mutants showed the same colony morphology as wild type, whereas all Flu- and Pro- mutants inhibited the growth of R. solani. These mutants were also susceptible to chloramphenicol, indicating only the Tn5 element, except for parts of pGS9, was integrated into the recipient genome. In a Southern blot analysis, the Tn5 element inserted into one site on the chromosome for each of the chosen mutants. However, Tn5 insertion sites of Inh-, and Pro- mutants were differed in each other. These indicate that the genes essential for R. solani inhibition, fluorescent production and auxotrophic are chromosomally located, but not linked to each other.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.265-270
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• 1995

Transposon mutation of Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv) was induced by using transposon omegon ($\Omega$)-Km (Tn $\Omega$Km), which was confirmed by resistance to kanamycin (KMr), and nonpathogenic mutants were selected through the inoculation test on pepper plants. The mutagenesis frequency was about 6$\times$10-8, and 53 out of 2,000 Kmr bacterial colonies tested were nonpathogenic to the pepper cultivar Cheung-Hong. Optimum conditions for the Tn $\Omega$Km mutagenesis of Xcv were Luria Bertani (LB) broth medium for culture of Xcv, yeast extract-dextrose-CaCO3 (YDC) agar medium for selection of Tn $\Omega$Km-mediated mutants, and over 1 to 2 in the ratio of the donor (Escherichia coli S17-1 with the plasmid pJFF350 $\Omega$Km) and the recipient (Xcv) in the culture for the mutagenesis. One of the 4 nonpathogenic mutants (WNP1, WNP3, WNP4 and WNP5), which had been reconfirmed through the inoculation on pepper cv. Dabokgun, showed no differences in the production of exoenzymes such as protease and polygalacturonase and extracellular polysaccharides in vitro and the bacterial growth rate from those of the wild type of Xcv.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.352-357
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• 1999

Enterobacter sp. B54 inhibited growth of the fungus Phytophthora capsici on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Three mutants with antifungal activities (denoted M54-47, M54-113, and M54-329) which were lost or increased, through Pl::Tn5 lac mutagenesis, were used to isolate genes responsible for fungal inhibition on PDA. Two clones were selected from the partially EcoR1-digested genomic library of the wild-type strain by probing with genomic flanking sequences of each mutant. We have isolated a 20-kb EcoR1 genomic DNA fragment from this strain that contains genes involved in hyphal growth inhibition of P. capsici on PDA. Subcloning and expression analysis of the above DNA fragment identified a 8-kb region which was necessary for antifungal activities. A 8-kb HindⅢDNA fragment covers three genomic loci inserted by Tn5 lac in each mutant. This suggested that all genes which are related to antifungal activities might be clustered in simple forms of at least 5-8 kb sizes.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.305-311
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• 1988

The spectinomycin resistant strain of slow growing R. japonicum R-168 was selected to be participated in conjugation with E. coli WA803/pGS9. Tn5 was introduced from suicide vector pGS9 into R. japonicum R-168 $spr^{r}$ chromosome at the frequency of $1.0\times 10^{-5}-5.0\times 10^{-7}$ and the transconjugante were selected on the yeast extract-mannitol plate containing kanamycin ($50{\mu}$g/ml) and spectinomycin ($100{\mu}$g/ml) after 8-9 days incubation. All transconjugants we tested were found to contain Tn 5 DNA on their genome, which was confirmed by Southern hybridization experiments. R. japonicum RNa75, which had been selected through plant test, was found to be defective in symbiotic nitrogen fixing ability and the production of leghemoglobin in soybean nodules formed by the inoculation of this mutant. In addition, this mutant strain hardly developed nitrogenase activity asymbiotically in contrast with the wild type strain, indicating that some nitrogen fixing gene might be blocked in this strain and the production of leghemoglobin could be decreased by the interference in nitrogen fixing genes.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.229-233
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• 2004

The bacterial leaf blight, which is caused by Xantho-monas oryzae pv. oryzae, is the most damaging and intractable disease of rice. To identify the genes involved in the virulence mechanism of transposon TnS complex, which possesses a linearized transposon and transposase, was successfully introduced into X. oryzae pv. oryzae by electroporation. The transposon mutants were selected and confirm the presence of transposition in X. oryzae pv. oryzae by the PCR amplification of transposon fragments and the Southern hybridization using these mutants. Furthermore, transposon insertion sites in the mutant bacterial chromosome were deter-mined by direct genomic DNA sequencing using transposon-specific primers with ABI 3100 Genetic Analyzer. Efficiency of transposition was influenced mostly by the competence status of X. oryzae pv. oryzae cells and the conditions of electroporation. These results indicated that the insertion mutagenesis strategy could be applied to define function of uncharacterized genes in X. oryzae pv. oryzae.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.139-142
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• 2004

To identify genes involved in the decolorization of brilliant green, we isolated random mutants generated by transposon insertion in brilliant green-decolorizing bacterium, Citrobacter sp. The resulting mutant bank yielded 19 mutants with a complete defect in terms of the brilliant green color removing ability. Southern hybridization with a Tn5 fragment as a probe showed a single hybridized band in 7 mutants and these mutants appeared to have insertions at different sites of the chromosome. Tn5-inserted genes were isolated and the DNA sequence flanking Tn5 was determined. By comparing these with a sequence database, putative protein products encoded by bg genes were identified as follows: bg 3 as a LysR-type regulatory protein; bg 11 as a MalG protein in the maltose transport system; bg 14 as an oxidoreductase; and bg 17 as an ABC transporter. The sequences deduced from the three bg genes, bg 2, bg 7 and bg 16, showed no significant similarity to any protein with a known function, suggesting that these three bg genes may encode unidentified proteins responsible for the decolorization of brilliant green.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.268-277
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• 2024

Erwinia pyrifoliae is a gram-negative bacterial pathogen that commonly causes black shoot blight in pear and apple tree. Although the pathogenicity of this bacterial species is very similar to E. amylovora, there is no specific explanation of its pathogenic genes and mechanisms. In this study, our investigation into E. pyrifoliae pathogenicity involved generating seven YKB12327 mutant strains using Tn5 transposon mutagenesis. Observations revealed weakened growth rate and loss of pathogenicity in these mutants. Whole-genome sequencing and alignment analysis identified transposon insertions within the coding sequences of five strains and in the intergenic region of two strains. Annotation analysis elucidated genes directly or indirectly associated with pathogenicity. Notably, mutant strain MT16 displayed a transposon insertion mutation in the cyclic-di-GMP phosphodiesterase (pdeF) gene, a key player in bacterial signaling, governing microbial behavior and adaptation to environmental changes. Our findings provide insights into the genetic regulation of E. pyrifoliae pathogenicity, suggesting potential avenues for further research aimed at understanding and controlling this bacterial pathogen by targeting pdeF to mitigate apple black shoot blight disease.