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Expression of an alkane monooxygenase (alkB) gene and methyl tert-butyl ether co-metabolic oxidation in Pseudomonas
Ana Luisa Bravo1, Juan Carlos Sigala, Sylvie Le Borgne
1División de Ciencias Naturales e Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Cuajimalpa, Avenida Vasco de Quiroga 4871, Colonia Santa Fe, Delegación Cuajimalpa de Morelos, 05348, México, D.F., Mexico, ana.sahuaripa@gmail.com.
Abstract:
Pseudomonas citronellolis UAM-Ps1 co-metabolically transforms methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) to tert-butyl alcohol with n-pentane (2.6 mM), n-octane (1.5 mM) or dicyclopropylketone (DCPK) (4.4 mM), a gratuitous inducer of alkane hydroxylase (AlkB) activity. The reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR was used to quantify the alkane monooxygenase (alkB) gene expression. The alkB gene was expressed in the presence of n-alkanes and DCPK and MTBE oxidation occurred only in cultures when alkB was transcribed. A correlation between the number of alkB transcripts and MTBE consumption was found (ΜΤΒΕ consumption in μmol = 1.44e(-13) x DNA copies, R(2) = 0.99) when MTBE (0.84 mM) was added. Furthermore, alkB was cloned and expressed into Escherichia coli and the recombinant AlkB had a molecular weight of 42 kDa. This is the first report where the expression of alkB is related to the co-metabolic oxidation of MTBE.
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