Conversion of phenyl methyl ethers by Desulfitobacterium spp. and screening for the genes involved. Issue 3 (20th October 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mingo, Felix S.; Studenik, Sandra; Diekert, Gabriele
• Is Part Of: FEMS microbiology ecology. Volume 90:Issue 3(2014)
• Page Start: 783
• Page End: 790
• Publication Date: 2014-10-20
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Microbiology -- Periodicals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1574-6941.12433
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0168-6496

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="fem12433-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Microbial growth coupled to <italic>O</italic>‐demethylation of phenyl methyl ethers, which are lignin decomposition products, was described for acetogenic bacteria and recently also for two species belonging to the nonacetogenic genus <italic>Desulfitobacterium</italic>. To elucidate the potential role of desulfitobacteria in the <italic>O</italic>‐demethylation of phenyl methyl ethers in the environment, we cultivated <italic>Desulfitobacterium chlororespirans</italic>, <italic> D. dehalogenans</italic>, <italic> D. metallireducens</italic>, and different strains of <italic>D. hafniense</italic> with phenyl methyl ethers as sole electron donors. With the exception of <italic>D. metallireducens</italic>, all species and strains tested were able to demethylate at least three of the four phenyl methyl ethers applied with fumarate, nitrate, or thiosulfate as electron acceptor. Furthermore, a high number of operons putatively encoding demethylase systems were identified in the genomes of <italic>Desulfitobacterium</italic> spp., although discrimination between <italic>O</italic>‐, <italic>S</italic>‐, <italic>N</italic>‐ and, <italic>Cl</italic>‐demethylases was not possible. These findings provide evidence for the importance of the methylotrophic metabolism for desulfitobacteria and point to their involvement in the <italic>O</italic>‐demethylation of phenyl methyl ethers in the environment.</p> </abstract>