Activity of protein MalE (maltose-binding protein) fused to cytoplasmic and periplasmic regions of an Escherichia coli inner membrane protein.

We analysed the properties of mature MBP (maltose-binding protein or MalE protein) fused to an integral cytoplasmic membrane protein of Escherichia coli. Fusion of MalE to the first MalG periplasmic loop enabled a strain defective in the malE gene to utilize maltose. In contrast, fusion of MalE to a cytoplasmic loop did not complement the malE delta 444 deletion. We obtained results highly correlated with those obtained by using alkaline phosphatase as a reporter for the topology of MalG. We discuss the possibility of genetically determining the topology of cytoplasmic membrane proteins by a method based on engineered fusions to MBP.