Table II
Methyltransferase activities in cell extracts of E. coli transformed with E. halochloris and A. halophila GSMT and SDMT
The activity on glycine, sarcosine, and dimethylglycine is expressed as micromoles of methyl groups transferred per min. The genes were overexpressed under E. coli phage T5 promoter using pQE-60 expression vector. Initial reaction rates were measured. The errors were within 15%.

Gene Activity units/ml
Glycine Sarcosine Dimethylglycine

E. halochloris
  GSMT 0.58 0.19 0
  SDMT 0.006 1.3 5.6
A. halophila
  SDMT-GSMT1-565a 0 0.028 0.072
  GSMT1-281a (truncated) 0 0 0
  SDMT282-565a (truncated) 0.017 0.77 1.5

a  For the amino acid number of truncated A. halophila proteins, see Fig. 2.