Cloning and characterization of a gene encoding 22 kDa functional protein of bacteriophage MB78.

Functional protein of MB78 bacteriophage having apparent molecular weight of 22 kDa is expressed from 1.7 kb HindIII G fragment. The nucleotide sequence of this fragment showed two open reading frames of 222 and 196 codons in tail-to-tail orientation separated by a 62-nucleotide intercistronic region. The ORF of 22 kDa protein is present in opposite orientation, i.e. in the complementary strand, preceded by a strong ribosomal binding site and a promoter sequence. Another ORF started from the beginning of the fragment whose promoter region and translational start site lies in the 0.45kb HincII U fragment which is located next to the HindIII G fragment, that has the sequence for DNA bending. 3'end of the fragment has high sequence homology to the EaA and EaI proteins of bacteriophage P22, a close relative of MB78 phage.