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E. coli strains producing a hybrid protein, containing adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and protein A of S. aureus was obtained. The sequence coding for ACTH was obtained from the bovine proopiomelanocortin cDNA and, after the modification of the 5'- and 3'-terminal parts, was linked with the protein A gene and its derivatives due to synthetic adaptors. Three forms of ACTH gene, coding this hormone with differing N-terminal amino acid were used to construct the fusion gene. The hybrid proteins contain Asp-Pro or (Asp)4-Lys sequences for obtaining ACTH by acid or enterokinase treatment, respectively. It is shown that each of the constructed plasmids direct the synthesis of hybrid protein in E. coli. This protein was purified by the use of IgG-sepharose. The level of the expression of the hybrid protein is 4 mg/l of the bacterial culture. Most of the synthesized protein is secreted into the periplasmic space.

The nucleotide sequence of 1179 b.p. preceding the trp operon genes has been established. There are no open reading frames large enough to code for proteins containing more than 97 amino acid residues. In all cases the coding sequences do not contain the initiation codons. The determined sequence is concluded to represent an intercistronic region.

A recombinant plasmid carrying a bovine growth hormone gene fused with the regulatory and signal regions of the alkaline phosphatase gene of E. coli was constructed. The bovine growth hormone gene expression as well as protein partial processing and secretion into the periplasm have been shown to take place under phosphate starvation, i.e. conditions of alkaline phosphatase derepression.

Effect of the structure of cloned env gene of HIV virus on the level of its expression has been studied. The deletion of the hydrophobic region from the env gene has been shown to increase considerably the biosynthesis of antigen-specific proteins in Escherichia coli cells. At the same time, the low level of expression of the gene fragment the transcription of which is controlled by a powerful lac-promoter suggests the presence of toxic regions of nonhydrophobic nature in the synthesized antigen.