Nucleotide sequence and expression of the gutQ gene within the glucitol operon of Escherichia coli.

The glucitol operon in Escherichia coli is known to consist of five structural genes with the order: gut O P A B D M R. We have sequenced downstream from gutR and have identified an open reading frame encoding a water-soluble protein (223 amino acids; molecular weight = 23,562) with a putative ATP binding site. Expression of this protein in a maxicell system has been demonstrated. A repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) sequence capable of forming stem-loop structures follows gutQ in the downstream, presumptive intercistronic region. The function of the Gut Q protein is not known.