CLONING AND SEQUENCING OF AN NA+/H+ ANTIPORTER GENE FROM THE MARINE BACTERIUM VIBRIO-ALGINOLYTICUS

A gene has been cloned from a DNA library from the marine bacterium Vibrio alginolyticus that functionally complements a mutant strain of Escherichia coli, NM81, defective in an Na+/H+ antiporter (NhaA). The cloned Vibrio gene restored NM81 to grow in a medium containing 0.5 M NaCl at pH 7.5 and concomitantly led to an increase in Na+/H+ antiport activity. The nucleotide sequence of the cloned fragment revealed an open reading frame, which encodes a protein with a predicted 383 amino acid sequence and molecular mass of 40 400 Da. The hydropathy profile is characteristic of a membrane protein with 11 membrane spanning regions. The deduced amino acid sequence is 58% identical with E coli NhaA.