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An unexpected gene cluster for downstream degradation of alkylphenols in Sphingomonas sp. strain TTNP3

  • Environmental Biotechnology
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Abstract

In silico analysis of nucleotide sequences flanking the recently found hydroquinone dioxygenase in Sphingomonas sp. strain TTNP3 revealed a gene cluster that encodes a hydroquinone catabolic pathway. In addition to the two open-reading frames encoding the recently characterized hydroquinone dioxygenase, the cluster consisted of six open-reading frames. We were able to express the three open-reading frames, hqdC, hqdD, and hqdE, and demonstrated that the three gene products, HqdC, HqdD, and HqdE had 4-hydroxymuconic semialdehyde dehydrogenase, maleylacetate reductase, and intradiol dioxygenase activity, respectively. Surprisingly, the gene cluster showed similarities to functionally related clusters found in members of the β- and γ-proteobacteria rather than to those found in other members of the genus Sphingomonas sensu latu.

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Acknowledgments

BAK and FLPG were funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation grant SNF-200021-120547. JF and CV were funded by the EC Grant Agreement 265946. We thank Dr. Stefan Kaschabek (University Freiberg) for generously providing a sample of cis-butenolide.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Ecopreneurship, School of Life Sciences, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, Muttenz, Switzerland

    Boris A. Kolvenbach, Hyazinth Dobrowinski & Philippe F. X. Corvini

  2. Institute for Environmental Research, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule, Aachen, Germany

    Boris A. Kolvenbach & Andreas Schäffer

  3. Institute of Molecular Genetics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jan Fousek & Cestmir Vlcek

  4. Centre for Applied Genomics, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jan Fousek & Cestmir Vlcek

  5. Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Frederic L. P. Gabriel

  6. Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Hans-Peter E. Kohler

  7. School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Philippe F. X. Corvini

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  1. Boris A. Kolvenbach
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  2. Hyazinth Dobrowinski
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  3. Jan Fousek
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  4. Cestmir Vlcek
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  5. Andreas Schäffer
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  6. Frederic L. P. Gabriel
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  7. Hans-Peter E. Kohler
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  8. Philippe F. X. Corvini
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Correspondence to Boris A. Kolvenbach.

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Kolvenbach, B.A., Dobrowinski, H., Fousek, J. et al. An unexpected gene cluster for downstream degradation of alkylphenols in Sphingomonas sp. strain TTNP3. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 93, 1315–1324 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3451-8

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