A Novel Insertion Sequence Transposed to Thermophilic Bacteriophage ϕIN93

The nucleotide sequence of IStaqTZ2 are available in the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under the accession number AB063392. A novel insertion sequence (IStaqTZ2) was transposed from the genome of Thermus thermophilus TZ2 to that of the thermophilic bacteriophage ϕIN93. The complete nucleotide sequence of IStaqTZ2 was determined and was found to be 1,258 bp in length and to contain an open reading frame (ORF1179), which is predicted to encode a transposase. IStaqTZ2 was also found to contain two terminal inverted repeats with 48 and 52 bp, respectively. Based on homology analysis, IStaqTZ2 was classified as a member of the IS256 family.