Molecular Cloning and the Nucleotide Sequence of a Bacillus sp. KK-l $\beta$-Xylosidase Gene

A gene coding for ${\beta}$-xylosidase from thermophilic xylanolytic Bacillus sp. KK-1 was cloned into Escherichia coli using plasmid pBR322. Recombinant plasmid DNAs were isloated from E. coli clones which were capable of hydrolyzing 4-methylumbelliferyl-${\beta}$-D xylopyranoside. Restriction analysis showed the DNAs to share a common insert DNA. Xylo-oligosaccharides, including xylotriose, xylotetraose, xylopentaose, and xylobiose were hydrolyzed to form xylose as an end product by cell-free extracts of the E. coli clones, confirming that the cloned gene from strain KK-1 is ${\beta}$-xylosidase gene. The ${\beta}$-xylosidase gene of strain KK-1 designated as xylB was completely sequenced. The xylB gene consisted of an open reading frame of 1,602 nucleotides encoding a polypeptide of 533 amino acid residues, and a TGA stop codon. The 3' flanking region contained one stem-loop structure which may be involved in transcriptional termination. The deduced amino acid sequence of the KK-1 ${\beta}$-xylosidase was highly homologous to the ${\beta}$-xylosidases of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus pumilus, but it showed no similarity to a thermostable ${\beta}$-xylosidase from Bacillus stearothermophilus.