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Branched-chain alcohol formation by thermophilic bacteria within the genera of Thermoanaerobacter and Caldanaerobacter

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Abstract

Fifty-six thermophilic strains including members of Caldanaerobacter, Caldicellulosiruptor, Caloramator, Clostridium, Thermoanaerobacter, and Thermoanaerobacterium, were investigated for branched-chain amino acid degradation in the presence of thiosulfate in batch culture. All of the Thermoanaerobacter and Caldanaerobacter strains (24) degraded the branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) to a mixture of their corresponding branched-chain fatty acids and branched-chain alcohols. Only one Caloramator strain degraded the branched-chain amino acids to the corresponding branched-chain fatty acids. The ratio of branched-chain fatty acid production over branched-chain alcohol production for Thermoanaerobacter was 7.15, 6.61, and 11.53 for leucine, isoleucine, and valine, respectively. These values for Caldanaerobacter were 3.49, 4.13, and 7.31, respectively. This indicates that members within Caldanaerobacter produce proportionally more of the alcohols as compared with Thermoanaerobacter. No species within other genera investigated produced branched-chain alcohols from branched-chain amino acids in the presence of thiosulfate.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Margret Auður Sigurbjörnsdóttir for her assistance constructing the phylogenetic tree and Eva María Ingvadóttir for her helpful feedback during the preparation of this manuscript.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Natural Resource Sciences, University of Akureyri, Nordurslod 2, Borgir, 600, Akureyri, Iceland

    Sean M. Scully, Pia Iloranta, Pauli Myllymaki & Johann Orlygsson

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  1. Sean M. Scully
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  2. Pia Iloranta
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  3. Pauli Myllymaki
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  4. Johann Orlygsson
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Correspondence to Johann Orlygsson.

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Communicated by H. Atomi.

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Scully, S.M., Iloranta, P., Myllymaki, P. et al. Branched-chain alcohol formation by thermophilic bacteria within the genera of Thermoanaerobacter and Caldanaerobacter . Extremophiles 19, 809–818 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-015-0756-z

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