The nucleotide sequence of the estI gene encoding acetylxylan esterase I of Bacillus stearothermophilus was determined and analyzed. The estI gene was found to consist of a 810 base pair open reading frame coding for a polypeptide of 270 amino acids with a deduced molecular weight of 30 kDa. This was in well agreement with the molecular weight (29 kDa) estimated by SDS-PAGE of the purified esterase. The coding sequence was preceded by a putative ribo some binding site 10 bp upsteam of the ATG codon. Further 53 bp upstream, the transcription initiation signals were identified. The putative $_{-}$10 sequence (TCCAAT) and $_{-}$35 seqence (TTGAAT) corresponded closely to the respective consensus sequences for the Bacillus subtiis major RNA polymerase. The G+C content of the coding region of the estI was 51% whereas that of the third position of codone was 60.2%. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the EstI deduced from the nucleotide sequence perfectly matched the corresponding region of the purified esterase described previously. Comparison with the amino acid sequence of other esterases and lipases reported so far allowed us to identify a sequence, GLSMG at positions 123 to 127 of the EstI which was reported to be the highly conserved active site sequence for those enzymes. The nucleotide sequence of the estI revealed 55.7% homology to that of the xylC coding for the acetylxylan esterase of Caldocellum saccharolyticum.