The Gene Encoding the Heat-Stable Enterotoxin of Vibrio cholerae is Flanked by 123-Base Pair Direct Repeats

Abstract

The heat-stable enterotoxin (Ol-ST) gene (sto) was cloned from chromosome of the strain GP156 of Vibrio cholerae Ol (Inaba, El Tor) in Escherichia coli K-12, and its nucleotide seqence was determined. The nucleotide sequence of sto was very similar to that of NAG-ST gene (Mn) of V. cholerae non-Ol. Both sto and stn were flanked by 123-base pair direct repeats which had at least 93% homology to one another and included some inverted repeats. All the strains of V. cholerae, V. mimicus, V. metschnikovii, V. hollisae and Yersinia enterocolitica examined by colony hybridization had the direct repeat sequence regardless of ST-gene possession. © 1993, Center For Academic Publications Japan. All rights reserved.