title: Expression and nucleotide sequence of the Lactobacillus bulgaricus beta-galactosidase gene cloned in Escherichia coli.
abstract: The Lactobacillus bulgaricus beta-galactosidase gene was cloned on a ca. 7-kilobase-pair HindIII fragment in the vector pKK223-3 and expressed in Escherichia coli by using its own promoter. The nucleotide sequence of the gene and approximately 400 bases of 3'- and 5'-flanking sequences was determined. The amino acid sequence of the beta-galactosidase, deduced from the nucleotide sequence of the gene, yielded a monomeric molecular mass of ca. 114 kilodaltons, slightly smaller than the E. coli lacZ and Klebsiella pneumoniae lacZ enzymes but larger than the E. coli evolved (ebgA) beta-galactosidase. The cloned beta-galactosidase was found to be indistinguishable from the native enzyme by several criteria. From amino acid sequence alignments, the L. bulgaricus beta-galactosidase has a 30 to 34% similarity to the E. coli lacZ, E. coli ebgA, and K. pneumoniae lacZ enzymes. There are seven regions of high similarity common to all four of these beta-galactosidases. Also, the putative active-site residues (Glu-461 and Tyr-503 in the E. coli lacZ beta-galactosidase) are conserved in the L. bulgaricus enzyme as well as in the other two beta-galactosidases mentioned above. The conservation of active-site amino acids and the large regions of similarity suggest that all four of these beta-galactosidases evolved from a common ancestral gene. However, these enzymes are quite different from the thermophilic beta-galactosidase encoded by the Bacillus stearothermophilus bgaB gene.
authors.affiliation: Genencor, Inc., South San Francisco, California 94080.
authors.forename: B F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Requadt
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Power
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Mainzer
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003062:Codon / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D005696:Galactosidases / Q000235:genetics*; D005796:Genes; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D003062:Codon; D005696:Galactosidases; D001616:beta-Galactosidase