CLONING AND NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCING OF A 15 KB REGION OF THE BACILLUS-SUBTILIS GENOME CONTAINING THE IOL OPERON

Within the framework of an international project on the sequencing of the whole Bacillus subtilis genome, a 15 kb chromosome segment, which contains the iol operon involved in inositol utilization, has been clo ned and sequenced. This region (14974 bp) contains 12 complete open re ading frames (ORFs; genes) and two partial ones; the seventh gene (E83 G) is the idh gene encoding inositol dehydrogenase. All the genes iden tified are transcribed in the same direction as that of the movement o f the replication fork. A homology search for their products deduced f rom the 12 complete ORFs revealed that eight of them exhibit significa nt homology to known proteins such as fructokinase, acetolactate synth ase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (B. subtilis). and PhoB and Ft sE proteins (Escherichia coli). It also implied that two genes (B65D a nd B65E) might encode a set of two-component regulatory proteins and t hat the BGSF gene might encode a protein belonging to the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) family. Based on the features of the nucleotide sequenc e determined and the results of the homology search, the primary struc ture of the iol operon is predicted.