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J Biol Chem 1992 Jun 15;267(17):12055-60

Sequence and characterization of Bacillus subtilis CheW.

Hanlon DW, Marquez-Magana LM, Carpenter PB, Chamberlin MJ, Ordal GW.

Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801.

A Bacillus subtilis open reading frame (ORF) encoding a predicted polypeptide of 156 amino acids was subcloned and sequenced. The polypeptide was found to be homologous to CheW of Escherichia coli, sharing 28.6% amino acid identity. The ORF was verified by using a bacteriophage T7 expression system in E. coli. The gene was inactivated by insertion of a nonpolor chloramphenicol acetyltransferase cassette in its N-terminal region. In the absence of chemoeffectors, the mutant displayed a smooth swimming bias, with some tumbling. The CheW- mutant was defective on swarm plates but was complemented by a plasmid that expressed wild type CheW. Addition of attractant or repellent to the CheW- mutant resulted in transient smooth swimming or tumbling, respectively. However, capillary assays revealed that chemotaxis was substantially impaired in the mutant strain.

PMID: 1601874 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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