Hg. Griffin et al., CLONING, DNA-SEQUENCE, AND REGULATION OF EXPRESSION OF A GENE ENCODING BETA-GALACTOSIDASE FROM LACTOCOCCUS-LACTIS, DNA sequence, 6(6), 1996, pp. 337-346
The beta-galactosidase from Escherichia coli is one of the most import
ant enzymes in molecular biology. Here we report the cloning and seque
ncing of a gene encoding beta-galadosidase from Lactococcus lactis and
compare the predicted amino acid sequence to that from other organism
s. The beta-galactosidase from L. lactis was found to be a protein of
996 residues with 68.7% similarity to the E. coli enzyme and 65.8% sim
ilarity to the enzyme from Klebsiella pneumoniae. The lactococcal beta
-galactosidase has lower similarity (approx 55%) to the enzymes from o
ther lactic acid bacteria and no significant similarity to the beta-ga
lactosidase enzymes from Agrobacterium radiobacter, Bacillus stearothe
rmophilus, or Clostridium thermosulfurogenes. Expression of the lacZ g
ene from L. lactis was found to be higher when cells were grown in med
ium containing lactose than when grown in glucose, and expression was
higher when cells were grown at 30 degrees C than at 35 degrees C.