Conjugative transfer of a shuttle plasmid from Escherichia coli to Mycobacterium smegmatis [corrected].

The chimeric plasmid pMY10 containing the origin of replication of pAL5000, the origin of replication of pBR322, the origin of transfer of pRK2 and a kanamycin resistance gene was constructed and successfully transferred by conjugation from Escherichia coli harbouring the helper plasmid pRK4.24 into Mycobacterium smegmatis. This is the first report of conjugtive transfer of plasmid between E. coli and an acid fast organism.