We have got several clones from Serratia marcescens which stimulated the cells to use maltose as a carbon source in Escherichia. coli TP2139 ( lac, crp). One of the cloned genes, pCKB17, was further analyzed. In order to find whether the increased expression of the gent was under the direction of maltose metabolism, we constructed several recombinant subclones. We have found that the clone, pCKB17AV, codes maltose metabolism stimulation(mms) gene. E. coli transformed with the cloned gene showed increase in the activity of maltose utilzation, The recombinant proteins expressed by multicopy and induction with IPTG, one polypeptide of 29-kDa, was confirmed by SDS-PAGE. The overexpression of maltose-binding proter protein in the presence of mms gene was confirmed by Western blot analysis. Southern hybridization analysis confirmed that the cloned DNA fragment was originated from S. marcescens chromosomal DNA.