title: Conversion of phenyl methyl ethers by Desulfitobacterium spp. and screening for the genes involved.
abstract: Microbial growth coupled to O-demethylation of phenyl methyl ethers, which are lignin decomposition products, was described for acetogenic bacteria and recently also for two species belonging to the nonacetogenic genus Desulfitobacterium. To elucidate the potential role of desulfitobacteria in the O-demethylation of phenyl methyl ethers in the environment, we cultivated Desulfitobacterium chlororespirans, D. dehalogenans, D. metallireducens, and different strains of D. hafniense with phenyl methyl ethers as sole electron donors. With the exception of D. metallireducens, all species and strains tested were able to demethylate at least three of the four phenyl methyl ethers applied with fumarate, nitrate, or thiosulfate as electron acceptor. Furthermore, a high number of operons putatively encoding demethylase systems were identified in the genomes of Desulfitobacterium spp., although discrimination between O-, S-, N- and, Cl-demethylases was not possible. These findings provide evidence for the importance of the methylotrophic metabolism for desulfitobacteria and point to their involvement in the O-demethylation of phenyl methyl ethers in the environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied and Ecological Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Mingo
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Studenik
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Diekert
mesh_terms: D000840:Anisoles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D045858:Desulfitobacterium / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004579:Electron Transport; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D009876:Operon; D010090:Oxidoreductases, O-Demethylating / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000840:Anisoles; C060998:anisole; D010090:Oxidoreductases, O-Demethylating
keywords: Desulfitobacterium; O-demethylase; anaerobic bacteria; metabolism