SEQUENCE OF THE STREPTOMYCES-ALBUS-G LIPASE-ENCODING GENE REVEALS THEPRESENCE OF A PROKARYOTIC LIPASE FAMILY

An extracellular lipase (Lip)-encoding gene from Streptomyces albus G has been cloned and sequenced. It encodes a Lip with 82% sequence iden tity to another previously cloned Lip from a Streptomyces species not closely related. These two sequences can be aligned with 33% identity to the sequence of Lip1 from the antarctic psychrotroph Moraxella TA14 4 [G. Feller et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 18 (1990) 6431]. An alignment of the three sequences revealed amino-acid substitutions which might b e responsible for the greater thermal stability of the Streptomyces li pases. The presence of this lip gene family in several members of the Streptomyces genus was also shown.