By using a 453 bp length gene fragment of superoxide dismutase(SOD)as a probe,which was firstly amplified from Deinococcus radiodurans genomic DNA by PCR with degenerate oligonucleotide primers corresponding to the conservative regions of known SODs,a putative SOD gene was identified from the database of D.radiodurans whole genome.Its 636 bp length open reading frame and 5′ and 3′ flanking sequence was determined.The conventional E.coli ribosomal and RNA polymerase binding sites were found upstream from SOD encoding region and an inverted repeat sequence downstream of the termination codon.The deduced 211 amino acid sequence of the structural gene showed a high similarity to other manganese and iron containing SODs in normally conserve regions.
