Molecular cloning and sequence analysis of the gene encoding the H2O-forming NADH oxidase from Streptococcus mutans

To discover the molecular properties of two distinct NADH oxidases, corresponding to H2O2-forming oxidase (NOX-1) and H2O-forming oxidase (NOX-2) induced in Streptococcus mutans, for the first step we had cloned and sequenced the nox-1 gene encoding NOX-2. In this paper, a nox-2 gene encoding NOX-2 from S. mutans was cloned, and the nucleotides sequenced. The nox-2 gene comprises 1371 base-pairs, encoding a polypeptide of 457 amino acid residues. The deduced relative molecular mass (M(r)=49919) agreed with the previous value obtained from the purified NOX-2 protein. The nox-2 gene was expressed in Escherichia coli using its own promoter. Alignment of the NOX-2 protein sequence with that of the NOX-1 showed that the proteins do not significantly resemble each other. Comparisons with the NADH oxidase from Streptococcus faecalis 10Cl yield identities of 41%. The redox-active cysteine in the enzyme from S. faecalis was found to correspond to Cys 44 in the NOX-2.