OprB is a glucose-selective porin known to be produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas putida. We have cloned and sequenced the oprB gene of I? aeruginosa and obtained expression of OprB in Escherichia coli. The mature protein consists of 423 amino acid residues with a deduced molecular mass of 47597 Da. Several clusters of amino acid residues, potentially involved in the structure or function of the protein, were identified. An area of regional homology with E. coli LamB was also identified. Carbohydrate-inducible proteins, potentially homologous to OprB, were identified in several rRNA homology-group-I pseudomonads by sodium dodecyl sulfate/ polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis, Western immunoblotting and N-terminal amino acid sequencing. These species also contained DNA that hybridized to a P. aeruginosa oprB gene probe.Porin proteins form trans-membrane water-filled channels in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria and allow the diffusion of substrates between the external environment and the periplasm of the cell (Nikaido and Vaara, 1985). Two types of porins have been recognized; nonspecific porins and substrate-selective porins. Nonspecific porins form channels which allow nonspecific diffusion of substrates based on solute mass, charge and polarity. Substrateselective porins show some substrate specificity and possess a binding site for a given substrate within the channel. In comparison to nonspecific porins, very few substrate-selective porins have been identified and characterized.The glucose-selective porin, OprB, of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was first identified by Hancock and Carey (1980) following SDSPAGE analysis of outer membranes of cells grown on glucose as the sole carbon source. Porin function was demonstrated by the efflux of several carbohydrates from vesicles reconstituted from purified OprB, lipopolysaccharide and phospholipid. Trias et al. (1988), using the liposome-swelling assay, characterized OprB as a substrate-selective porin by demonstrating selectivity of OprB for glucose and xylose. Subsequently, a binding site for glucose and several other carbohydrates was demonstrated in P. aeruginosa OprB and its homologue in Pseudomonas putida by Wylie et al. (1993) and Saravolac et al. (1991), respectively. f? aeruginosa OprB bound glucose with a K, of 380 mM. K, for glucose binding to I? putida OprB was within the same order of magnitude, with a value of 110 mM. P. putida OprB was also shown to bind maltose and maltotriose with a higher affinity than glucose, although neither l? aeruginosa nor P. putida is able to utilize maltose or maltotriose as a carbon source. Single-channel-conductance measurements indicated that both P. aeruginosa and P. putida OprB form small constricted channels [25 pS (picosiemens) for P. aeruginosa within the pore of these proteins. Surprisingly, although I? aeruginosa and I? putida OprB appear closely related based on immunological and biochemical evidence (Saravolac et al., 1991 ; Wylie et al., 1993), the two porins show opposite ion sel...