Identification of a native Dichelobacter nodosus plasmid and implications for the evolution of the vap regions

Studies on the role of various virulence factors of the ovine pathogen, Dichelobacter nodosus, have suffered from the absence of a mechanism for the introduction of DNA into this organism. As an initial step in the development of genetic methods, we have identified and cloned a native 10-kb plasmid, pJIR896, from a clinical isolate. This plasmid was found to be a circular form of vap region 1/3 that is found in the reference strain, A198. However, pJIR896 lacked the duplicated region present in the A198 sequence and instead contained a 1.7-kb putative insertion sequence, IS1253, which shared similarity to a number of unusual IS elements. A model is proposed for the evolution of vap region 1/3 which involves the integration of a plasmid, such as pJIR896, and subsequent rearrangements resulting from the deletion or transposition of IS1253.