Work

Multiple Formaldehyde Oxidation/Detoxification Pathways in Burkholderia fungorum LB400

Year: 2004

Type: article

Abstract: Burkholderia species are free-living bacteria with a versatile metabolic lifestyle. The genome of B. fungorum LB400 is predicted to encode three different pathways for formaldehyde oxidation: an NAD-linked, glutathione (GSH)-independent formaldehyde dehydrogenase; an NAD-linked, GSH-dependent formaldehyde oxidation system; and a tetrahydromethanopterin-methanofuran-dependent formaldehyde oxidation system. The other Burkholderia species for which genome sequences are available, B. mallei, B. pseudomallei, and B. cepacia, are predicted to contain only the first two of these pathways. The roles of the three putative formaldehyde oxidation pathways in B. fungorum LB400 have been assessed via knockout mutations in each of these pathways, as well as in all combinations of knockouts. The resulting mutants have the expected loss of enzyme activities and exhibit defects of varying degrees of severity during growth on choline, a formaldehyde-producing substrate. Our data suggest that all three pathways are involved in formaldehyde detoxification and are functionally redundant under the tested conditions.

Source: Journal of Bacteriology

DOI: 10.1128/jb.186.7.2173-2178.2004

Authors: Christopher J. Marx, Jonathan A. Miller, Ludmila Chistoserdova, Mary E. Lidstrom

Institution: University of Washington

Language: English

Topic: Microbial metabolism and enzyme function

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Awards: Integrated Metabolism in Methylobacterium extroquens AM1, G2608117561, Microbial Observatories: Evolution and Diversity of Biochemical Pathways: A Methylotrophic Microbial Observatory