Organization of the ORFs detected in the Thermus genome sequence that encode 12 prepilin-like proteins and gene disruption of conserved ORFs within potential competence loci in the genome of T. thermophilus HB27. In the restriction maps of plasmids covering different conserved ORFs of the potential competence loci only selected restriction sites are shown. The triangle indicating the kat gene indicates the insertion site of the Kmr marker gene. The arrows indicate the directions of transcription. pilA, prepilin gene; trxR, putative thioredoxin reductase gene; HII, HincII; N, NcoI; K, KpnI; n.d., not determined. The asterisk indicates two closely associated HincII sites.