Abstract

A 5789-nucleotide-long EcoRI fragment from the genome of Thermotoga maritima, identified by cross-hybridization to L11, L1, L10, and L12 ribosomal protein gene sequences from Escherichia coli, was cloned and sequenced. The fragment encodes five tRNAs (tRNA(met1), anticodon complementary to AUG; tRNA(met2), AUG; tRNA(thr), ACA; tRNA(tyr), UAC; tRNA(trp), UGG), the transcription termination-antitermination factor nusG, the four 50 S subunit ribosomal proteins L11, L1, L10, and L12, and the amino-terminal portion of the RNA polymerase beta subunit protein. The five tRNA genes, the nusG gene, and the L11, L1, L10, and L12 ribosomal protein genes form a complex transcription unit. Transcripts appear to be initiated from an upstream promoter, P1, located in front of the tRNA(met1) gene and from three internal promoters: P2 is located immediately in front of the tRNA(met2) gene; PL10 is near the beginning of the L1-L10 intergenic space, and PL12 is at the end of the L10 gene sequence. The tRNA sequences are excised from the leader regions of the P1- and P2-initiated transcripts. Three putative but potentially important regulatory sequences were identified within this operon: an L1 translational control site, a transcription attenuator, and a strong rho-independent terminator. The strong terminator located distal to the L12 gene overlaps a fifth promoter, P beta, which is used to initiate transcripts of the downstream RNA polymerase beta subunit gene. The T. maritima NusG protein exhibits 43% amino acid sequence identity when aligned to the E. coli protein; the alignment is interrupted by a large 171-amino acid-long insertion into the T. maritima protein after codon 45.