Characterization of the conserved region of the mxaF gene that encodes the large subunit of methanol dehydrogenase from a marine methylotrophic bacterium.

The highly conserved region of the mxaF gene that encodes the large subunit of methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) was cloned and sequenced from Methylophaga sp. strain MP cells. The calculated G + C content of the conserved region was found to be 44.9%. The nucleotide sequence homology of the region to those from methylotrophs was approximately 43.5%, while the identity of the deduced amino acid sequence to other MxaF peptides was approximately 76.8%. Analysis of the codon usage revealed that UUC and CGU codons seem to be used only for phenylalanine and arginine, respectively. The aligned amino acid sequences show that several key amino acids that are required for the MDH enzyme activity are located in the deduced MxaF peptide, together with tryptophan-docking motifs, called W4 and W5.