The promoter-proximal region of the Bacillus licheniformis penicillinase gene: Nucleotide sequence and predicted leader peptide sequence.

Penicillinase (beta-lactamase) is a major species of secreted protein produced by Bacillus licheniformis 749. From the pTB2 recombinant plasmid containing the cloned entire penicillinase (penP) gene, we have isolated and sequenced a 446-bp HpaII fragment carrying the beginning of penP. The 3'-end coding region of 216-bp on this DNA fragment codes for the first 72 amino acids of the prepenicillinase protein. The deduced structure of the leader peptide consists of a 34 amino acid signal sequence with a hydrophilic N-terminal region and a central hydrophobic core.