title: Microbial catabolism of vanillate: decarboxylation to guaiacol.
abstract: A novel catabolic transformation of vanillic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic acid) by microorganisms is reported. Several strains of Bacillus megaterium and a strain of Streptomyces are shown to convert vanillate to guaiacol (o-methoxyphenol) and CO2 by nonoxidative decarboxylation. Use of a modified most-probable-number procedure shows that numerous soils contain countable numbers (10(1) to 10(2) organisms per g of dry soil) of aerobic sporeformers able to convert vanillate to guaiacol. Conversion of vanillate to guaiacol by the microfloras of most-probable-number replicates was used as the criterion for scoring replicates positive or negative. Guaiacol was detected by thin-layer chromatography. These results indicate that the classic separations of catabolic pathways leading to specific ring-fashion substrates such as protocatechuate and catechol are often interconnectable by single enzymatic transformations, usually a decarboxylation.
mesh_terms: D001410:Bacillus megaterium / Q000378:metabolism*; D003653:Decarboxylation; D006139:Guaiacol / Q000378:metabolism*; D062385:Hydroxybenzoates / Q000378:metabolism*; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D013302:Streptomyces / Q000378:metabolism*; D014641:Vanillic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D062385:Hydroxybenzoates; D006139:Guaiacol; D014641:Vanillic Acid