Novel phosphotransferase system genes revealed by bacterial genome analysis: unique, putative fructose- and glucoside-specific systems.

Analyses of sequences made available through the Escherichia coli genome project in the 87.2-89.2-min and 81.5-84.5-min regions have revealed 2 putative operons encoding proteins of the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS). The first putative operon, designated frv, includes 4 open reading frames (ORFs), ORFf147, ORFf485, ORFf356, and ORFf582, ORFf147 and ORFf485 comprise an Enzyme IIA-Enzyme IIBC pair of the PTS. The sequence similarity of ORFf485 to previously characterized fructose-specific Enzymes IIBC suggests that ORFf485 may be specific for fructose. ORFf147 encodes a protein with comparable degrees of sequence similarity to fructose and mannitol-specific Enzymes IIA as well as homologous proteins implicated in sigma 54-dependent transcriptional regulation. Unique features of this system include a detached IIA protein and the absence of a IIB domain duplication. ORFf356 and ORFf582 are functionally unidentified and nonhomologous to other ORFs in the current protein databases, but ORFf582 contains 2 N-terminal helix-turn-helix motifs, suggestive of a role in frv operon transcriptional regulation. The second putative operon, designated glv, includes 3 ORFs, ORFf455, ORFf161, and ORFf212. We suggest that ORFf455 was incorrectly assigned and should be designated ORFf368. ORFf368 and ORFf161 encode an Enzyme IIC and IIB pair of the PTS showing greatest sequence similarity to Enzymes II specific for sugars of the gluco configuration. ORFf212 encodes a protein with sequence similarity to a phospho-beta-glucosidase and an alpha-galactosidase. No putative transcriptional regulator of the glv operon was found. This operon is the first one encoding a putative PTS permease with detached Enzymes IIB and IIC and lacking an Enzyme IIA. It is suggested that both the frv and glv operons are cryptic in E. coli and that additional genes encoding novel PTS-related proteins will be revealed by bacterial genome sequence analyses.