4002bp, contained an AT-rich region and eneoded several open reading frfimes, as deduced by the comp]ete nucleotide sequence. One of the plltative open reading frames showed homology with replication proteins of other plasmids. A shuttle vector of Escherichia coti and this strain was constructed by connecting pAH4 to pUCI8. Electroporation of the shllttle vector into the strain yielded 1 .7 x 10i ampicillin resistant transformants per pg DNA. The shuttle plasmid was yery stably maintained in the strain.