Relaxation complexes of plasmids ColE1 and ColE2: unique site of the nick in the open circular DNA of the relaxed complexes.

The product of the induced relaxation of supercoiled DNA-protein relaxation complexes of colicinogenic factors E1 (ColE1) and E2 (ColE2) is an open circular DNA molecule with a strand-specific nick. Cleavage of the open circular DNA of each relaxed complex with the EcoRI restriction endonuclease demonstrates that the single-strand break is at a unique position. The site of the single-strand break in the relaxed ColE1 complex is approximately the same distance from the EcoRI cleavage site as the origin of ColE1 DNA replication.