A partial synthesis of a structural gene for beta-galactosidase and construction of a series of pLZ plasmids for quantitative study of E. coli promoters are reported. The gene was assembled of two short synthetic DNAs and of a 3000 bp long EcoRI fragment (comprising the lacZ sequence 16-3013) isolated from plasmid p198/1 of B. Gronenborn. Among the plasmids constructed, pLZ4 is a promoter-probe vector that contains the semi-synthetic gene fused with a synthetic Shine-Dalgarno sequence and preceded by unique EcoRI and KpnI cleavage sites. On cloning a promoter into these sites, its signal strength in vivo could easily be measured by assaying beta-galactosidase activity. The use of pLZ4 vector was demonstrated by quantifying the effect of T7 early promoters A1 and A2, the latter being found 4,5 times more active under the conditions employed.