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. 1984 Jan;81(2):439–443. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.2.439

Use of the Escherichia coli lac repressor and operator to control gene expression in Bacillus subtilis.

D G Yansura, D J Henner
PMCID: PMC344692  PMID: 6420789

Abstract

The Escherichia coli lac operator has been placed on the 3' side of the promoter for the penicillinase gene of Bacillus licheniformis, creating a hybrid promoter controllable by the E. coli lac repressor. The E. coli lac repressor gene has been placed under the control of a promoter and ribosome-binding site that allows expression in Bacillus subtilis. When the penicillinase gene that contains the lac operator is expressed in B. subtilis on a plasmid that also produces the lac repressor, the expression of the penicillinase gene can be modulated by isopropyl beta-D-thiogalactoside (IPTG), an inducer of the lac operon in E. coli. A similar system was constructed from a promoter of the B. subtilis phage SPO-1 and the leukocyte interferon A gene, which allowed the controlled expression of interferon in B. subtilis. These two examples show that a functional control system can be introduced into B. subtilis from E. coli.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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