Isolation of DNA fragment containing phoS gene of Escherichia coli K-12.

The DNA fragment containing the phoS gene, a regulatory gene for alkaline phosphatase, has been isolated from Escherichia coli K-12 chromosomal DNA by cutting off the DNA with Hind III restriction enzyme and by cloning the gene with plasmid vector pTP 4 which was constructed in this study. The isolated fragment was of about 12.3 kbp and seemed to contain the phoT, glmS, and bgl genes. The 12.3 kbp Hind III fragment was subjected to restriction enzymes EcoR I, BamH I, Sal I, and Pst I, and was found to possess two EcoR I, no BamH I, a Sal I, and four Pst I sites. Partial deletion using these restriction enzymes suggested that the about 6 kbp Hind III-Pst I fragment contained the phoS and phoT genes. Further analysis with other restriction enzymes revealed that the 6 kbp Hind III-Pst I fragment contained a BstE II, two Mlu I and four Hpa I sites. The deletion of these restriction sites using single-strand-specific nuclease S1 suggested that the BstE II and one of Mlu I sites were in the phoT gene, and the BstE II and two Mlu I sites were not in the phoS gene.