Putative signal peptide on the small subunit of the periplasmic hydrogenase from Desulfovibrio vulgaris

We sequenced the NH2 terminus of the large and small subunits of the periplasmic hydrogenase from the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris (Hildenborough) and found that the small subunit lacks a region of 34 NH4-terminal amino acids coded by the gene for the small subunit (G. Voordouw and S. Brenner, Eur. J. Biochem. 148:515-520, 1985). We suggest that this region constitutes a signal peptide based on comparison with known procaryotic signal peptides.