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Journal of Bacteriology, August 1999, p. 4568-4575, Vol. 181, No. 15
School of Biological Sciences, University of
Wales Bangor, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, Wales, United
Kingdom,1 and Department of
Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
30602-26052
Received 30 March 1999/Accepted 27 May 1999
Acinetobacter sp. strain ADP1 is able to grow on a
range of esters of aromatic alcohols, converting them to the
corresponding aromatic carboxylic acids by the sequential action of
three inducible enzymes: an areA-encoded esterase, an
areB-encoded benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase, and an
areC-encoded benzaldehyde dehydrogenase. The
are genes, adjacent to each other on the chromosome and
transcribed in the order areCBA, were located 3.5 kbp
upstream of benK. benK, encoding a permease implicated in
benzoate uptake, is at one end of the ben-cat supraoperonic
cluster for benzoate catabolism by the
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
areABC Genes Determine the Catabolism of
Aryl Esters in Acinetobacter sp. Strain ADP1
-ketoadipate pathway. Two
open reading frames which may encode a transcriptional regulator,
areR, and a porin, benP, separate benK from areC. Each are gene was
individually expressed to high specific activity in Escherichia
coli. The relative activities against different substrates of the
cloned enzymes were, within experimental error, identical to that of
wild-type Acinetobacter sp. strain ADP1 grown on either
benzyl acetate, benzyl alcohol, or 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol as the
carbon source. The substrate preferences of all three enzymes were
broad, encompassing a range of substituted aromatic compounds and in
the case of the AreA esterase, different carboxylic acids. The
areA, areB, and areC genes were
individually disrupted on the chromosome by insertion of a kanamycin
resistance cassette, and the rates at which the resultant strains
utilized substrates of the aryl ester catabolic pathway were severely
reduced as determined by growth competitions between the mutant and
wild-type strains.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of
Biological Sciences, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57
2UW, Wales, United Kingdom. Phone: (44) 1248 382363. Fax: (44) 1248 370731. E-mail: P.A.Williams{at}bangor.ac.uk.
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