Mutant analysis of Prevotella sp. plaA-lacZ fusion protein expression in Escherichia coli: support for an essential role of the stem-loop.

This study investigated the involvement of RNA folding in the synthesis of a fusion protein with beta-galactosidase activity. The coding gap region of the Prevotella loescheii adhesin gene plaA was fused in-frame with the Escherichia coli lacZ gene on plasmid pSK105. N-Terminal sequencing of the expressed plaA-lacZ protein indicated that it resulted from translational initiation at a fortuitous ribosomal-binding site within the plaA sequence at nt 570.