Abstract

Vibrio parahaemolyticus contains 11 rRNA operons each including one of six 16S-23S rRNA gene intergenic spacer classes differing in size and nucleotide sequence. Some of the spacer classes may differ between isolates. We observed that the differences in the spacers between isolates are generally in two spacer classes present in single copies in the genome, one class containing tRNA Ala and tRNAGlu and the other tRNAGlu exclusively. Moreover, these differences are due to indels located nearby their tRNAGlu. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence between spacer classes suggests that intragenomic nonreciprocal recombination causes the size variations observed in the spacer regions of V. parahaemolyticus strains. © 2005 Federation of European Microbiological Societies Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.