The regulatory region of the cya gene from Escherichia coli has been characterized by nucleotide sequence analysis and genetic approaches. Two promoters, P1 and P2, organized in that order with respect to the beginning of the cya open reading frame, were identified. Using cya‐lac operon and protein fusions, it was possible to show that both promoters are active in vivo. P1 activity seemed sensitive to catabolite repression whereas activity of the stronger promoter, P2, did not respond to inhibition by glucose. No effect of cAMP or its receptor, catabolite activator protein (CAP), could be found although the DNA sequence reveals a consensus CAP site downstream of P2. The 548 nucleotides situated at the 3′ end of the sequence carry an open reading frame which can tentatively be assigned to the beginning of adenylate cyclase. Among noteworthy features of the corresponding sequence are an UUG codon as the putative start site of cyclase, and a long hydrophobic stretch of amino acids resembling leader peptides in secreted or membrane proteins.

The asd gene of escherichia coli encodes aspartic semialdehyde dehydrogenase, an enzyme involved in lysine, threonine, and methionine biosynthesis; its synthesis is controlled by a multivalent repression mechanism. It was cloned in plasmid pBR322 and its complete nucleotide sequence determined. The sequence predicts a polypeptide chain of 367 amino acids, in good agreement with results obtained for the purified protein (Biellmann et al., 1980a). Our data indicate a Cys residue instead of a His residue, which was proposed after covalent labeling of the active center of the enzyme; this is more in line with the catalytic site of glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase, an enzyme which carries out a similar reaction. The nucleotide sequence that precedes the translational start does not display any of the characteristic features of an attenuation signal. Hence the expression of the asd gene is probably not controlled in the same way as other multivalently repressed operons such as ilva and thr.

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