An Acetobacter xylinum insertion sequence element associated with inactivation of cellulose production

An insertion sequence (IS) element, IS1031, caused insertions associated with spontaneous cellulose deficient (Cel-) mutants of Acetobacter xylinum ATCC 23769. The element was discovered during hybridization analysis of DNAs from Cel- mutants of A. xylinum ATCC 23769 with pAXC145, an indigenous plasmid from a Cel- mutant of A. xylinum NRCC 17005. An IS element, IS1031B, apparently identical to IS1031, was identified on pAXC145. IS1031 is about 950 bp. DNA sequencing showed that the two elements had identical termini with inverted repeats of 24 bp containing two mismatches and that they generated 3-bp target sequence duplications. The A. xylinum ATCC 23769 wild type carries seven copies of IS1031. Southern hybridization showed that 8 of 17 independently isolated spontaneous Cel- mutants of ATCC 23769 contained insertions of an element homologous to IS1031. Most insertions were in unique sites, indicating low insertion specificity. Significantly, two insertions were 0.5 kb upstream of a recently identified cellulose synthase gene. Attempts to isolate spontaneous cellulose-producing revertants of these two Cel- insertion mutants by selection in static cultures were unsuccessful. Instead, pseudorevertants that made waxlike films in the liquid-air interface were obtained. The two pseudorevertants carried new insertions of an IS1031-like element in nonidentical sites of the genome without excision of the previous insertions. Taken together, these results suggest that indigenous IS elements contribute to genetic instability in A. xylinum. The elements might also be useful as genetic tools in this organism and related species.