Nucleotide Sequence and Features of the Bacillus licheniformis gnt Operon

Bacillus licheniformis was able to utilize gluconate as thesole carbon source as efficiently as Bacillus subtilis did.Southern analysis indicated that B. licheniformis likely possessesonly one gnt determinant. The nucleotide sequence (6278 bp)of the B. licheniformis DNA containing the gnt operon was determined,revealing the five complete open reading frames (ORF; genes).The putative product of the first gene, oug, did not show anysignificant homology to known proteins, but those of the secondto fifth genes exhibited striking homology to the gntRKPZ genesof B. subtilis, respectively, indicating that they are the correspondinggnt genes of B. licheniformis. Not only is the organizationof the gnt genes of these two Bacilli highly conserved, butso are the cis regulatory elements of their gnt operon. Sequenceanalysis of the upstream regions of these two gnt operons impliedthat a chromosome rearrangement in B. subtilis might have occurredimmediately upstream of the gnt operon during evolution, causingit to diverge from a common ancestor into B. licheniformis andB. subtilis.