SEQUENCE-ANALYSIS OF THE REGION DOWNSTREAM FROM A PEPTIDOGLYCAN HYDROLASE-ENCODING GENE FROM STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS NCTC8325

The nucleotide (nt) sequence of a 4.7-kb DNA fragment downstream from a peptidoglycan hydrolase-encoding gene (lytA) from Staphylococcus aureus NCTC8325 was determined. Sequencing revealed three open reading frames (ORFs) of 513, 447 and 879 bp with consensus ribosome-binding sites located upstream from the ATG start codons. Results from in vitro transcription-translation analysis and maxicell experiments suggested that the 447-bp ORF was the one being actively expressed. Comparison of the amino acid (aa) sequences of the ORFs with the aa sequences in the NCBI Entrez database (Release 4.0, April 1993) did not show any significant homology to any sequenced polypeptides. However, nt sequences downstream from lytA showed perfect homology to the bacteriophage phi 11 attachment site (attP) and integration site (attB), and significant homology to downstream regions of the staphylokinase (sak) and exfoliative toxin A (eta) genes of S. aureus.