Molecular Analysis of the Gene Encoding F(420)-Dependent Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase from Mycobacterium smegmatis

The gene fgd, which codes for F(420)-dependent glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (FGD), was cloned from Mycobacterium smegmatis, and its sequence was determined and analyzed. A homolog of FGD which has a very high similarity to the M. smegmatis FGD-derived amino acid sequence was identified in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. FGD showed significant homology with F(420)-dependent N(5),N(10)-methylene-tetrahydromethanopterin reductase (MER) from methanogenic archaea and with several hypothetical proteins from M. tuberculosis and Archaeoglobus fulgidus, but FGD showed no significant homology with NADP-dependent glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenases. Multiple alignment of FGD and MER proteins revealed four conserved consensus sequences. Multiple alignment of FGD with the hypothetical proteins also revealed portions of the same conserved sequences. Moderately high levels of FGD were expressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) carrying fgd in pBluescript.