Tn 501 insertion mutagenesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO

Transposon insertion mutagenesis of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO chromosome with Tn 1 and Tn 501 was carried out using a mutant plasmid of R68::Tn 501 temperature-sensitive for replication and maintenance. This method consists of three steps. Firstly, the temperature-independent, drug-resistant clones were selected from the strain carrying this plasmid. In the temperature-indepent clones, the plasmid was integrated into the chromosome by Tn 1- or Tn 501-mediated cointegrate formation. Secondly, such clones were cultivated at a permissive temperature to provoke the excision of the integrated plasmid from the chromosome. Excision occurred by the reciprocal recombination between the two copies of Tn 1 or Tn 501 flanking the integrated plasmid, leaving one Tn 1 or Tn 501 insertion on the chromosome. Thirdly, the excised plasmid was cured by cultivating these isolates at a non-permissive temperature without selection for the drug resistance. Using this method, we isolated 1 Tn 1-induced and 43 Tn 501-induced auxotropic mutations in this organism. Genetic mapping allowed us to identify two new genes, pur-8001 and met-8003. The Tn 501-induced auxotrophic mutations were distributed non-randomly among auxotrophic genes, and the reversion of the mutations by precise excision of the Tn 501 insertion occurred very rarely.