The nucleotide sequence of the gltS gene coding for an Na+/glutamate symport carrier of Escherichia coli B has been determined, and the amino acid sequence of the carrier protein was deduced. The predicted glutamate carrier consists of 401 amino acids with a molecular weight of 42,455. A Shine-Dalgarno sequence and putative promoter sequences were found in the 5'-flanking region of the putative gltS gene. The predicted protein is very hydrophobic (73% nonpolar amino acids), and judging from its

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... hydropathy profile, the protein is composed of 12 hydrophobic membrane-spanning segments with a mean length of 21.6 residues/segment. A typical rho-independent transcription termination signal was found downstream of the gltS gene. We found a conserved alignment of 5 amino acid residues (Gly42--Ala82-X-X-X-X-Leu87-X-X-X-Gly91-Arg92 ), which commonly exists in four Na+ symport carrier proteins, the glutamate carrier, and the proline carrier of E. coli, and the Na+/glucose co-transporters of rabbit and human intestines. We propose that this consensus sequence (or motif) may play an important role in cation recognition or binding in the Na+/solute symport reaction.