Characterization of the regulatory region of the Escherichia coli penicillin acylase structural gene.

Penicillin acylase is utilized in the enzymatic production of semisynthetic penicillins. The enzyme is composed of two different subunits that originate from a common precursor. The partial nucleotide (nt) sequence of the structural gene has been published. This paper reports the nt sequence of the regulatory region of this gene, the identification of a functional promoter, the transcriptional start point, and the description of possible regulatory regions.