Isolation and mapping of phosphotransferase mutants in Escherichia coli

Mutants of Escherichia coli K-12 defective in enzyme I or Hpr, the two common components of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system, were isolated by a simple, direct method. The ptsI locus, the structural gene for enzyme I, and the ptsH locus, the site of mutations leading to loss of Hpr activity, are adjacent genes and could be part of a single operon. These two genes lie between the purC and supN markers in the order: strA... guaB-purC-ptsI-ptsH-supN-dsdA... his.