Improved plasmid vectors for the isolation of translational lac gene fusions.

The beta-galactosidase fusion vector pMC1403 has been modified to include the unique cloning sites EcoRI, SmaI, BamHI, SalI, AccI, PstI and HindIII. The new vectors (pNM480, pNM481 and pNM482) allow the fusion of genes to beta-galactosidase in all three translational reading frames, and exhibit an increased sensitivity of promoter detection due to a higher copy number.