COMPARATIVE GENOME MAPPING OF PSEUDOMONAS-AERUGINOSA PAO WITH PSEUDOMONAS-AERUGINOSA C, WHICH BELONGS TO A MAJOR CLONE IN CYSTIC-FIBROSIS PATIENTS AND AQUATIC HABITATS

A physical and genetic map was constructed for Pseudomonas aeruginosa C. Mainly, two-dimensional methods were used to place 47 SpeI, 8 PacI, 5 SwaI, and 4 I-CeuI sites onto the 6.5-Mb circular chromosome, A tot al of 21 genes, including the rrn operons and the origin of replicatio n, were located on the physical map, Comparison of the physical and ge netic map of strain C with that of the almost 600-kb-smaller genome of P. aeruginosa reference strain PAO revealed conservation of gene orde r between the two strains, A large-scale mosaic structure which was du e to insertions of blocks of new genetic elements which had sizes of 2 3 to 155 kb and contained new SpeI sites was detected in the strain C chromosome, Most of these insertions were concentrated in three locati ons: two are congruent with the ends of the region rich in biosyntheti c genes, and the third is located in the proposed region of the replic ation terminus, In addition, three insertions were scattered in the re gion rich in biosynthetic genes, The arrangement of the mt operons aro und the origin of replication was conserved in C, PAO, and nine other examined independent strains.