“…A number of bacteria within the order Actinomycetales contain linear plasmids which encode catabolic traits (Dabrock et al, 1994;Kosono et al, 1997;Shimizu et al, 2001;Coleman & Spain, 2003;König et al, 2004), hydrogen autotrophy (Kalkus et al, 1990), determinants of virulence (Crespi et al, 1992), heavy metal resistance (Dabrock et al, 1994;Ravel et al, 1998;Stecker et al, 2003) or the production of secondary metabolites (Kinashi et al, 1987;Suwa et al, 2000). Linear plasmids have been described to occur in species of Streptomyces (Hayakawa et al, 1979;Kinashi et al, 1987;Chen et al, 1993;Kinoshita-Iramina et al, 1997;Suwa et al, 2000;Spatz et al, 2002), Rhodococcus (Crespi et al, 1992;Kalkus et al, 1990;Kosono et al, 1997;Shimizu et al, 2001;Stecker et al, 2003;König et al, 2004), Mycobacterium (Picardeau & Vincent, 1997, 1998Le Dantec et al, 2001;Coleman & Spain, 2003), Planobispora (Polo et al, 1998) and Clavibacter (Brown et al, 2002).…”