Two E. coli genes, A and B, are known from mapping experiments to be very close to each other. A deletion mutation is isolated that eliminates the activity of both A and B. Neither the A nor B protein can be found in the mutant, but a novel protein is isolated in which the amino-terminal 30 amino acids are identical to those of the B gene product and the carboxy-terminal 30 amino acids are identical to those of the A gene product.
a) With regard to the 5' - 3' orientation of the nontranscribed DNA strand, is the order of the genes AB or BA?
b) What number of bases is deleted in the coding region? How do you know?