Sequence analysis of a 50 kb region between spoOH and rrnH on the Bacillus subtilis chromosome

The 49630 bp spoOH-rrnH region of the Bacillus subtilis genome has been fully sequenced. The sequence contains one partial and 62 complete ORFs, one partial and three complete rRNA genes and a cluster of six tRNA genes. The direction of the transcription and translation of 61 ORFs is the same as that of the movement of the replication fork. A homology search of 40 ORFs in newly determined sequence revealed that 27 of them had significant similarity to known proteins such as elongation factor G, elongation factor Tu, pseudouridine synthase I and ribosomal proteins. Two adjacent genes, ybaD and ybaE, appeared to encode proteins belonging to the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) family.