Construction of hybrid plasmids containing the Escherichia coli uxaB gene: analysis of its regulation and direction of transcription.

The uxaB gene of Escherichia coli, encoding for altronate oxidoreductase involved in the hexuronate degradative pathway, was isolated on a ColE1-uxaB hybrid plasmid from the Clarke and Carbon bank. The restriction map of this plasmid was established. The uxaB gene was mapped on a 1.5-megadalton HindIII-KpnI DNA fragment. Use of an in vitro gene fusion between uxaB and lacZ genes led to the determination that uxaB is transcribed from the KpnI towards the HindIII restriction sites. Gene amplification in cells containing various uxaB hybrid plasmids allowed us to show a gradation in the level of repression of exu operator sites by the exuR regulatory gene product.