The nucleotide sequence of the tobacco chloroplast gene for the large subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase.

The gene for the large subunit (LS) of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBPCase/Oase) from tobacco has been cloned in pBR322 and sequenced. The coding region contains 1431 bp (477 codons). The deduced amino acid sequence of tobacco LS protein shows 90% homology with those of maize and spinach LS. The positions in the gene corresponding to the 5' and the 3' ends of tobacco LS mRNA have been located on the DNA sequence by the S1 nuclease mapping procedure. The LS gene promoter sequence has homology with Escherichia coli promoter sequences; its terminator sequence is capable of forming a stem-and-loop structure. A sequence GGAGG, which is complementary to a sequence near the 3' end of tobacco chloroplast 16S rRNA and a putative ribosome binding site, occurs 6-10 bp upstream from the initiation codon.