A putative ABC-transport operon of Mycobacterium smegmatis.

We have recently described the mpr gene of Mycobacterium smegmatis whose product confers resistance to mycobacteriophages L5 and D29 when overproduced (Barsom and Hatfull (1996) Mol. Microbiol. 21, 159-170). We have determined the nt sequence of approximately 3.5 kb immediately adjacent to mpr which appears to encode components of an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transport system. Four closely-spaced open reading frames (ORF) were identified although two of these may cooperate to produce an integral membrane component of the transport system via a programmed translational frameshift. Another putative protein is also predicted to be an integral membrane protein, while the third is an ABC-transporter protein. We propose that these three putative proteins form a mycobacterial membrane-bound complex involved in protein-dependent transport. This is the first ABC-transport system to be described in mycobacteria.