Metabolism of gallate and phloroglucinol in Eubacterium oxidoreducens via 3-hydroxy-5-oxohexanoate

The pathway for the anaerobic catabolism of gallic acid by Eubacterium oxidoreducans was studied by using both in vivo and cell-free systems. Cells grown with gallate and crotonate, but with no formate or H2, excreted pyrogallol and phloroglucinol into the medium. Gallate was decarboxylated by crude cell extracts, with pyrogallol as the only detectable product. Whole cells converted pyrogallol to phloroglucinol. A phloroglucinol reductase catalyzed the conversion of phloroglucinol to dihydrophloroglucinol when NADPH was used as the source of electrons. Both formate dehydrogenase (EC 1.2.1.43) and hydrogenase (EC 1.18.99.1) were present in cell extracts of gallate-formate-grown cells. These two enzymes were both NADP linked. Since either H2 or formate is required for cell growth with gallate or phloroglucinol, these results suggest that the oxidation of the reduced substrate may be indirectly linked to the reduction of phloroglucinol. A dihydrophloroglucinol hydrolase was present, which hydrolyzed dihydrophloroglucinol to 3-hydroxy-5-oxohexanoate. This six-carbon ring cleavage product then presumably can be broken down by a series of reactions similar to beta-oxidation. These reactions cleaved the six-carbon acid to 3-hydroxybutyryl-coenzyme A yielding acetate and butyrate as end products. A number of key enzymes involved in beta-oxidation and substrate-level phosphorylation were demonstrated in cell extracts.