A 23911 BP REGION OF THE BACILLUS-SUBTILIS GENOME COMPRISING GENES LOCATED UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM OF THE LEV OPERON

Within the framework of the European project to sequence the whole Bac illus subtilis 168 genome, a 23911 bp long chromosomal DNA fragment lo cated around 233 degrees on the B. subtilis genetic map was cloned and sequenced. From the generated sequencing data and the results of the homology search, the primary structure of this region was determined. In addition to the whole lev operon, the region contains putative gene s for an amino acid permease, two different alcohol dehydrogenases, a chitosanase, a protein belonging to the LysR family of transcriptional regulators, a protein related to the MerR transcriptional regulator, up to four proteins related to the product of the spoF gene, and genes coding for nine more inferred proteins of unknown function.