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Efficient Turnover of Chlorocatechols Is Essential for Growth of Ralstonia eutropha JMP134(pJP4) in 3-Chlorobenzoic Acid

Laboratorio de Microbiología, Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile,¹ Department of Environmental Biotechnology, GBF-German Research Center for Biotechnology, Braunschweig, Germany²

Received 3 September 2002/ Accepted 28 November 2002

Ralstonia eutropha JMP134(pJP4) degrades 3-chlorobenzoate (3-CB) by using two not completely isofunctional, pJP4-encoded chlorocatechol degradation gene clusters, tfdC_ID_IE_IF_I and tfdD_IIC_IIE_IIF_II. Introduction of several copies of each gene cluster into R. eutropha JMP222, which lacks pJP4 and thus accumulates chlorocatechols from 3-CB, allows the derivatives to grow in this substrate. However, JMP222 derivatives containing one chromosomal copy of each cluster did not grow in 3-CB. The failure to grow in 3-CB was the result of accumulation of chlorocatechols due to the limiting activity of chlorocatechol 1,2-dioxygenase (TfdC), the first enzyme in the chlorocatechol degradation pathway. Micromolar concentrations of 3- and 4-chlorocatechol inhibited the growth of strains JMP134 and JMP222 in benzoate, and cells of strain JMP222 exposed to 3 mM 3-CB exhibited a 2-order-of-magnitude decrease in viability. This toxicity effect was not observed with strain JMP222 harboring multiple copies of the tfdC_I gene, and the derivative of strain JMP222 containing tfdC_ID_IE_IF_I plus multiple copies of the tfdC_I gene could efficiently grow in 3-CB. In addition, tfdC_I and tfdC_II gene mutants of strain JMP134 exhibited no growth and impaired growth in 3-CB, respectively. The introduction into strain JMP134 of the xylS-xylXYZL genes, encoding a broad-substrate-range benzoate 1,2-dioxygenase system and thus increasing the transformation of 3-CB into chlorocatechols, resulted in derivatives that exhibited a sharp decrease in the ability to grow in 3-CB. These observations indicate that the dosage of chlorocatechol-transforming genes is critical for growth in 3-CB. This effect depends on a delicate balance between chlorocatechol-producing and chlorocatechol-consuming reactions.

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