Cloning, characterization and functional analysis of groEL-like gene from thermophilic cyanobacterium Synechococcus vulcanus, which does not form an operon with groES

Abstract A gene encoding 57 102 Da polypeptide homologous to groEL of Escherichia coli but accompanying no groES, has been cloned and sequenced from a thermophilic cyanobacterium, Synechococcus vulcanus . The amount of the gene transcript increased several folds by heat shock. The gene was expressed as a minor component of two types of HSP60, and designated as groEL2 . Although expressed and induced well upon heat shock treatment in the E. coli , introduction of the cloned groEL2 gene of S. vulcanus into an E. colis groEL -less mutant did not result in the complementation of heat sensitivity.