Chromosomal Arm Replacement in Streptomyces griseus

UV irradiation of Streptomyces griseus 2247 yielded a new chromosomal deletion mutant, MM9. Restriction and sequencing analysis revealed that homologous recombination between two similar lipoprotein-like open reading frames, which are located 450 and 250 kb from the left and right ends, respectively, caused chromosomal arm replacement. As a result, new 450-kb terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) were formed in place of the original 24-kb TIRs. Frequent homologous recombinations in Streptomyces strains suggest that telomere deletions can usually be repaired by recombinational DNA repair functioning between the intact and deleted TIR sequences on the same chromosome.