Nucleotide sequence of levansucrase gene (levU) of Zymomonas mobilis ZM1 (ATCC10988).

The extracellular levansucrase gene (levU) was cloned from the genomic DNA of Zymomonas mobilis ZM1 and the nucleotide sequence of the levU structural gene was determined. The 3.1 kb EcoRV-polylinker fusion DNA fragment containing the levU gene had an open reading frame of 1272 bps and the deduced amino acid sequence was 423 residues long with a molecular weight of 46,725. Although this protein exhibited little similarity with other known levansucrases, several well-conserved regions were observed (1-5 regions).