Cloning, sequence, and overexpression of bacteriophage T4 gene 51

Abstract

The nucleotide sequence of the 907-bp XbaI-EcoRV T4 DNA fragment containing gene 51 is presented. The sequence of gene 51 predicts a 249 amino acid peptide with an M(r) of 29387 and a pl of 6.34. We have cloned and overexpressed this gene in the T7 RNA polymerase system. The observed molecular mass of gp51 is in agreement with the sequence data. We also show that the low level of gene 51 expression usually seen is caused by an RNA stem-loop structure in the region between genes 26 and 51. In addition, discrepancies with the sequence published by other authors are indicated.