BACKGROUND: Tn3 is a bacterial transposon, which encodes transposase required for its transposition. Tn3 has terminal inverted repeat (IR) sequences of 38 bp in length, whose inner region, called the B domain, is bound by transposase. Tn3 confers transposition immunity, a phenomenon in which Tn3 transposes to a target replicon with Tn3 much less frequently than to a target replicon with no Tn3. RESULTS: To understand transposition and transposition immunity at the molecular level, we constructed a cell-free system using a plasmid as the target. Transpositional recombination occurred in a cell extract containing transposase between the target and a donor plasmid carrying mini-Tn3 at a high frequency. The reaction required ATP, Mg2+, dNTPs and 2% polyvinyl alcohol, and was inhibited by inhibitors for DNA synthesis and DNA gyrase. In this system, when a plasmid with the IR sequence was used as the target, the frequency of transposition was significantly decreased, demonstrating that the transposition immunity conferred by Tn3 is reproduced in vitro. Preincubation of the target in the cell extract increased the level of transposition immunity. On the other hand, mutations within the B domain in the IR sequence of the target abolished transposition immunity. CONCLUSIONS: Transposition of Tn3 and transposition immunity could be reproduced in vitro. The results demonstrate that the binding of transposase to domain B of the IR sequence in the target replicon is responsible for transposition immunity. We propose that the transposition immunity results from conversion of the normal synaptic complex formed between the donor and target molecules to another complex which is inactive for transposition, due to the interaction between transposases binding to the IR sequences in the donor and target molecules.

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