The production of two lipoamide dehydrogenases by Pseudomonus is so far unique. One, LPD-val, is the specific E3 component of the branched-chain-oxoacid dehydrogenase and the second, LPD-glc, is the E3 component of 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase and the L-factor of the glycine oxidation system. The objective of the present research was to determine the nucleotide sequence of the structural gene for LPD-val in order to compare its deduced amino acid structure with that of other redox-active disulfide flavoproteins. Northern blots using mRNA isolated from P. putidu grown in media with branched-chain amino acids identified a transcript of 6.2 kb which is long enough to encode all the structural genes for the complex. The nucleotide sequence of the structural gene for LPD-Val, lpdV, was determined and consists of 459 codons plus the stop codon. The open reading frame begins two bases after the stop codon for the E2 subunit and is composed of 66.3% G + C . Codon usagc is characteristic of moderately strongly expressed genes. There is a ribosome-binding site preceding the ATG start codon and a strong candidate for a rho-independent terminator at the 3' end of the reading frame. The M , of the protein encoded is 48164 and when the M , of FAD is added, the total M , is 48949, which is very close to the value of 49 000 obtained by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.Similarity comparisons of LPD-Val with sequences of three other lipoamide dehydrogenases showed that LPDval was somewhat more distantly related. It is probable that the lipoamide dehydrogenases and the glutathione and mercuric reductases evolved from a common ancestral flavoprotein.Branched-chain-oxoacid dehydrogenase, the second enzyme in the catabolism of valine, leucine and isoleucine [I], is a multienzyme complex composed of three subunits: El, the dehydrogenase-decarboxylase, E2, the transacylase and E3, lipoamide dehydrogenase. The complex has been purified from bovine kidney [2], Pseudomonas putidu [3], rabbit liver [4] and Pseudomonus ueruginosu [5]. In addition, an oxoacid dehydrogenase has been purified from Bacillus subtilis [6] which has activity with pyruvate and branched-chain oxoacids. All of these complexes are composed of four polypeptides including Elcl and Elfl subunits. The mammalian complexes are regulated by phosphorylation [4, 71, while the P.~eudomonus complex is allosterically regulated by L-valine I3, 51.P. putidu and P. ueruginosu contain two lipoamide dehydrogenases, LPD-Val and LPD-glc. LPD-val was so named because it is induced in media containing branched-chain amino acids as carbon sources and is the specific E3 subunit of branched-chain-oxoacid dehydrogenase, which is its only known function [5, 81. LPD-glc is found in cells grown in glucose synthetic medium and is the E3 subunit of 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase [9] and the L-factor of the glycine-oxidation system in P. putidu [lo]. LPD-val and LPDglc are specific for their functions and are not interchangeable. Mutants affected in IpdV, the structural gene for LPD-val, lack b...