Regulation of the beta-lactamase BlaL of Streptomyces cacaoi: the product of the blaB regulatory gene is an internal membrane-bound protein.

The beta-lactamase-encoding gene blaL, cloned from Streptomyces cacaoi in Streptomyces lividans, is inducible by beta-lactam compounds. This regulation has been shown to depend on the products of two open reading frames, ORF1 (blaA) and ORF2 (blaB) [Lenzini, Magdalena, Fraipont, Joris, Matagne and Dusart (1992) Mol. Gen. Genet. 235, 41-48]. BlaA belongs to the LysR family of transcription activators, whereas BlaB shares some features with the penicillin-recognizing proteins. BlaB has now been overexpressed in Escherichia coli, purified and used for antibody preparation. Immunoblotting of cell-fractionated materials from S. cacaoi showed that BlaB is attached to the internal face of the cytoplasmic membrane. It could not be released by high salt concentrations or EDTA, but only by protease treatment. Under the assay conditions, BlaB did not act as a penicillin-binding protein, a beta-lactamase, a D-amino-peptidase or a target in a phosphorylation step.