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Journal of Bacteriology, August 2008, p. 5699-5709, Vol. 190, No. 16
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00409-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Anaerobic Degradation of p-Ethylphenol by "Aromatoleum aromaticum" Strain EbN1: Pathway, Regulation, and Involved Proteins{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Lars Wöhlbrand,1 Heinz Wilkes,2 Thomas Halder,3 and Ralf Rabus1,4*

Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany,1 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany,2 TopLab GmbH, Martinsried, Germany,3 Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany4

Received 24 March 2008/ Accepted 26 May 2008

The denitrifying "Aromatoleum aromaticum" strain EbN1 was demonstrated to utilize p-ethylphenol under anoxic conditions and was suggested to employ a degradation pathway which is reminiscent of known anaerobic ethylbenzene degradation in the same bacterium: initial hydroxylation of p-ethylphenol to 1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-ethanol followed by dehydrogenation to p-hydroxyacetophenone. Possibly, subsequent carboxylation and thiolytic cleavage yield p-hydroxybenzoyl-coenzyme A (CoA), which is channeled into the central benzoyl-CoA pathway. Substrate-specific formation of three of the four proposed intermediates was confirmed by gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis and also by applying deuterated p-ethylphenol. Proteins suggested to be involved in this degradation pathway are encoded in a single large operon-like structure (~15 kb). Among them are a p-cresol methylhydroxylase-like protein (PchCF), two predicted alcohol dehydrogenases (ChnA and EbA309), a biotin-dependent carboxylase (XccABC), and a thiolase (TioL). Proteomic analysis (two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis) revealed their specific and coordinated upregulation in cells adapted to anaerobic growth with p-ethylphenol and p-hydroxyacetophenone (e.g., PchF up to 29-fold). Coregulated proteins of currently unknown function (e.g., EbA329) are possibly involved in p-ethylphenol- and p-hydroxyacetophenone-specific solvent stress responses and related to other aromatic solvent-induced proteins of strain EbN1.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Carl-von-Ossietzky Str. 9-11, D-26111 Oldenburg, Germany. Phone: 49-441-798-3884. Fax: 49-441-798-3404. E-mail: rabus{at}icbm.de

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 6 June 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

Journal of Bacteriology, August 2008, p. 5699-5709, Vol. 190, No. 16
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00409-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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