Primary structure of CTP:CMP-3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonate cytidylyltransferase (CMP-KDO synthetase) from Escherichia coli.

The gene coding for CTP:CMP-3-deoxy-D-mannooctulosonate cytidylyltransferase (CMP-KDO synthetase), kds B, was previously cloned on a 9-kilobase Pst insert of Escherichia coli DNA into pBR 322 (Goldman, R. C., and Kohlbrenner, W. E. (1985) J. Bacteriol. 163, 256-261). Using a transposon mutagenesis approach we have now located kds B on this insert, which facilitated the isolation and sequencing of a 1.3-kilobase segment of DNA containing kds B and putative RNA polymerase and ribosome binding sites. The primary structure of CMP-KDO synthetase predicted by this nucleotide sequence was verified by amino acid composition and sequence analysis of purified CMP-KDO synthetase and cleavage fragments. Our results show that kds B consists of a 744-base open reading frame coding for a 248-amino acid peptide. The molecular weight of CMP-KDO synthetase calculated from the translated sequence is 27,486, taking into account the loss of the N-terminal methionine. These data define the transcriptional unit of kds B and its translation product in molecular terms, information prerequisite to our understanding of both the mechanism of CMP-KDO formation and the regulation of the KDO metabolic pathway in Gram-negative bacteria.