Cloning and Nucleotide Sequence of the recA Gene from Shigella sonnei KNIH104S Isolated in Korea

Shigella sonnei is an important cause of human enteric infections. S. sonnei KNIH104S was previously reported to be isolated from Korean shigellosis patients. We cloned a 2.8-kb KpnI fragment containing the recA gene encoding a recombinase from the chromosomal DNA of S. sonnei KNIH104S. This recombinant plasmid was named pRAK28. E. coli HB101, a recA mutant, cannot grow on Luria-Bertani medium in the presence of the alkylating agent methylmethane sulfonate, however, E. coli HB101 harboring pRAK28 was found to grow on this medium. As far as we know, we are the first to sequence the recA gene from S. sonnei. This gene is composed of 1062 base pairs with an ATG initiation codon and a TAA termination codon. Nucleotide sequence comparison of the S. sonnei recA gene exhibited 99.7% and 99.5% identity with those of S. flexneri and E. coli, respectively.