Discovery of an insertion sequence, IS116, from Streptomyces clavuligerus and its relatedness to other transposable elements from actinomycetes

We have identified an insertion sequence, IS116, present in Streptomyces clavuligerus at one copy per genome. The element was discovered as a 1.4 kb insertion into the multicopy plasmid pIJ702 after propagation in S. clavuligerus. The nucleotide sequence of IS116 and the flanking sequences from pIJ702 have been determined. The junctions with pIJ702 show no target site duplication and there are no inverted repeats at the ends of the element. One putative coding open reading frame of 1197 bp was identified which would code for a protein product of 399 amino acids. This protein resembles deduced integrase/transposase proteins specified by three other transposable elements of actinomycetes: IS110 and the mini-circle from Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2), and - most particularly - IS900 of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis. Two regions that are relatively conserved among these gene products show features found in similar positions in many reverse transcriptases. IS116 and IS900 are also closely similar in their general organization and (apparently) in their insertion site specificity, whereas IS110 and the mini-circle are quite different in these features.