Efficiency of transcriptional terminators in Bacillus subtilis

To promote more efficient synthesis of heterologous gene products in a Bacillus subtilis host, we have developed a system for rapidly testing the effect of a putative terminator on in vivo gene expression. Terminator structures from the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens amyE gene, the Bacillus licheniformis penP gene, the B. subtilis bglS gene, and the Bacillus thuringiensis cry gene were subcloned and inserted into a vector in such a way as to disrupt expression of the cat-86 gene. Comparisons are made between gene expression levels and the stabilities of the respective stem-loop structures.