FIG 2.

KupA and KupB in silico analysis. (A) Arrangement of the tandem kupA and kupB in the genome of L. lactis IL1403. In L. lactis MG1363, the kupA gene is inactive due to an internal stop codon. (B) Predicted membrane topology of KupA using the Protter Web server. Amino acids conserved in L. lactis KupA and KupB are highlighted in blue, and those conserved in E. coli as well are shown in red. Positions of amino acid substitutions that result in increased activity of KupB are highlighted in yellow. The cell membrane is shown in gray. The 12 transmembrane helices are numbered.