Construction of a shuttle vector for use in Riemerella anatipestifer

• The shuttle vector pRES contains the putative replication origin from R. anatipestifer plasmid pRA7026 and a ColE1 ori for replication in R. anatipestifer and E. coli respectively.
• It contains oriT for transferring the vector into R. anatipestifer by conjugation, and the putative promoter of the streptothricin resistance gene of plasmid pRA0726 for heterologous gene expression in R. anatipestifer.
• It is the first example of a shuttle vector system specifically for R. anatipestifer.

Riemerella anatipestifer causes epizootic infectious disease in poultry and serious economic losses, especially to the duck industry. Four complete genome sequences of R. anatipestifer strains are now available. However, functional studies have been limited by the lack of an effective shuttle vector. In this study, we constructed a shuttle vector, pRES, which was able to transfer plasmid DNA between Escherichia coli and R. anatipestifer strains. The vector contains the putative replication origin from R. anatipestifer plasmid pRA7026 and a ColE1 ori for replication in R. anatipestifer and E. coli respectively. In addition, it contains oriT for transferring the vector into R. anatipestifer by conjugation, and the putative promoter of the streptothricin resistance gene of plasmid pRA0726 for heterologous gene expression in R. anatipestifer. The vector pRES will be useful in the investigation of gene function in R. anatipestifer.