CLONING AND SEQUENCING OF THE GENES ENCODING GLYCERALDEHYDE-3-PHOSPHATE DEHYDROGENASE, PHOSPHOGLYCERATE KINASE AND TRIOSEPHOSPHATE ISOMERASE (GAP OPERON) FROM MESOPHILIC BACILLUS-MEGATERIUM - COMPARISON WITH CORRESPONDING SEQUENCES FROM THERMOPHILIC BACILLUS-STEAROTHERMOPHILUS

The structural genes encoding glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), 3-phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) and the N-terminal part of triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) from mesophilic Bacillus megaterium DSM319 have been cloned as a gene cluster (gap operon) by complementation of an Escherichia coli gap amber mutant. Subsequently, the entire tpi gene, encoding TIM, was isolated by colony hybridization using a homologous probe. Nucleotide (nt) sequence analysis revealed an unidentified open reading frame (urfl) of 1029 bp located 50 nt upstream from the start codon of the gap gene. Gene expression from subclones containing different coding regions was studied by enzyme assay and SDS-PAGE. Both GAPDH and TIM are synthesized in transformed E. coli cells, whereas PGK is not. There is no unequivocal evidence for urfl expression. Two putative promoter sites are present: one 100 nt upstream from urfl and one 200 nt upstream from the pgk gene. An inverted repeat following the second promoter site is postulated to be involved in the transcriptional regulation of the operon. Each coding region shows a G+C content of 40% attained by the adaptation of the G+C content of the third base in the codon to compensate the G+C content of the first and second bases. The deduced amino acid (aa) sequences of B. megaterium GAPDH, PGK and TIM were compared with those from the thermophilic Bacillus stearothermophilus by antisymmetrical matrices. The detected characteristic thermophilic-mesophilic exchange pattern concerning aa substitutions between hydrophobic-polar and charged-charged residues corresponds to data obtained for thermophilic and mesophilic lactate dehydrogenases (LDH). The determination of the thermostability of these enzymes revealed two regions of stability for B. megaterium TIM at high enzyme concentrations. Heat treatment seems to be responsible for the conversion of two differently active conformations or the induction of a new quaternary structure.