MILCHSÄUREBAKTERIELLES REGULIERBARES EXPRESSIONSSYSTEM

PCT No. PCT/DK97/00341 Sec. 371 Date Dec. 29, 1997 Sec. 102(e) Date Dec. 29, 1997 PCT Filed Aug. 22, 1997 PCT Pub. No. WO98/10079 PCT Pub. Date Mar. 12, 1998Expression vectors capable of being replicated in lactic acid bacterial cells comprising a promoter region comprising (a) a promoter sequence element the function of which is regulatable by an environmental or growth condition factor and (b) at least one further nucleotide sequence element, the position, orientation, presence and/or sequence of which element has a regulatory effect on the expression of a gene operably linked to the promoter region in which vectors the position, orientation, presence and/or sequence of at least one of said elements (a) or (b) is modified relative to the position, orientation, presence and/or sequence of the corresponding non-modified element whereby the expression of the gene is altered, and a lactic acid bacterium which is transformed with such a vector as defined above are provided. The recombinant cells containing such a regulatable or inducible gene expression system are useful as food or feed starter cultures or as strains for the production of gene products such as pharmaceutically or immunologically active compounds including oligo- or polypeptides derived from a Mycobacterium species including M. tuberculosis.