Cloning and nucleotide sequence of phoP, the regulatory gene for alkaline phosphatase and phosphodiesterase in Bacillus subtilis.

Two DNA fragments which complement the alkaline phosphatase-negative mutation phoP of Bacillus subtilis were cloned from a B. subtilis chromosome with the prophage vector phi CM (a derivative of phi 105). One of the fragments contained the regulatory gene phoR in addition to phoP. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the phoP region revealed that the phoP gene product consists of 241-amino-acid residues and that the sequence of these amino acids is extensively homologous with the sequence of the phoB gene product. This protein is the positive regulator for the phosphate regulon in Escherichia coli. It therefore appears that phoP is a regulatory gene for alkaline phosphatase synthesis in B. subtilis.