Vibrio fischeri ATCC 7744 is an ampicillin resistant (Amp(r)) marine luminous bacterium. The MIC test indicates that V fischeri is highly resistant to penicillins, and susceptible to cephalosporins. V. fischeri ampC gene was cloned and identified. Nucleotide sequence of an unidentified ufo gene and the ampC, ppiB genes (GenBank Accession No. AY438037) has been determined; whereas the ampC gene encodes the beta-lactarnase (AmpC) and the ppiB gene encodes the peptidyl-prolyl cis trans isomerase B. Alignment and comparison show that V. fischeri beta-lactamase is homologous to the related species'. The specific amino acid residues STFK (62nd to 65th), SDN (122nd to 124th), and D (155th) located 34 residues downstream from the SDN loop of the class A beta-lactamases are highly conserved, but the KTG is not found. V fischeri ampC gene encoding beta-lactamase has a calculated M-r 31,181 and comprises 283 amino acid residues (pI 5.35). There is a signal peptide of 18 amino acid residues MKIKPFLFGLIVLANNAI in the pro-beta-lactamase, which functioned for secretion; thus, the matured protein only has M-r 29,197 and comprises 265 amino acid residues (pI 4.95). SDS-PAGE and the beta-lactamase functional assays elicit that the M-r of the beta-lactamases are close to 29 kDa. IEF and the beta-lactamase functional assays show that the beta-lactamases' pi are close to 4.8 as predicted. The results elucidate that V fischeri ampC gene and the cloned ampC gene in Escherichia coli are the same one. The gene order of the ampC and the related genes is -ufo-(P*-intern)-ampC-ppiB--> (P*-intern: intern promoter for sub-regulation), whereas the P*-intern promoter displays the function to lead the ampC gene's expression for stress response. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.