Transcript analysis of Escherichia coli K-12 insertion element IS5

The mobile insertion element IS5 is a relatively small but genetically compact DNA sequence of 1195 bp found in variable copy number in the genome of Escherichia coli strains. This study presents a detailed transcript analysis of the population of IS5 elements present in E. coli strains MC4100 and MG1655. The findings indicate that the ins5A gene comprising 978 bp is transcribed from its own promoter, which is located close to the right-hand end of the element. The two divergently transcribed genes ins5C and in5B form an operon, and this transcript is fully contained within the borders of the ins5A transcript. Although transcription out of IS5 from element-internal promoters was negligible, in the case of MG1655 a major transcript was found to extend into the insertion element. This suggests that IS5-specific transcription can be influenced by the specific location of the element in the chromosome, the orientation it adopts and the gene it interrupts.