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Updated: Aug 30, 2026

A Toolkit to Enable Hydrocarbon Conversion in Aqueous Environments
Published on: October 2, 2012
Functional characterization of genes involved in alkane oxidation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Theo H M Smits1, Bernard Witholt, Jan B van Beilen
1ETH Hönggerberg, Institute of Biotechnology, Zürich, CH-8093, Switzerland; Current address: EPFL, ENAC/ISTE/LBE, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Most clinical isolates identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa grow on long-chain n-alkanes, while environmental P. aeruginosa isolates often grow on medium- as well as long-chain n-alkanes. Heterologous expression showed that the two alkane hydroxylase homologs of P. aeruginosa PAO1 (AlkB1 and AlkB2) oxidize C(12)-C(16)n-alkanes, while two rubredoxin (RubA1 and RubA2) and a rubredoxin reductase (RubB) homologs can replace their P. putida GPo1 counterparts in n-octane oxidation. The two long-chain alkane hydroxylase genes are present in all environmental and clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa strains tested in this study.
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