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n-Alkane assimilation and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) oxidation capacity in Mycobacterium austroafricanum strains

  • Applied Microbial and Cell Physiology
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Abstract

Mycobacterium austroafricanum IFP 2012, which grows on methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and on tert-butyl alcohol (TBA), the main intermediate of MTBE degradation, also grows on a broad range of n-alkanes (C2 to C16). A single alkB gene copy, encoding a non-heme alkane monooxygenase, was partially amplified from the genome of this bacterium. Its expression was induced after growth on n-propane, n-hexane, n-hexadecane and on TBA but not after growth on LB. The capacity of other fast-growing mycobacteria to grow on n-alkanes (C1 to C16) and to degrade TBA after growth on n-alkanes was compared to that of M. austroafricanum IFP 2012. We studied M. austroafricanum IFP 2012 and IFP 2015 able to grow on MTBE, M. austroafricanum IFP 2173 able to grow on isooctane, Mycobacterium sp. IFP 2009 able to grow on ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), M. vaccae JOB5 (M. austroaafricanum ATCC 29678) able to degrade MTBE and TBA and M. smegmatis mc2 155 with no known degradation capacity towards fuel oxygenates. The M. austroafricanum strains grew on a broad range of n-alkanes and three were able to degrade TBA after growth on propane, hexane and hexadecane. An alkB gene was partially amplified from the genome of all mycobacteria and a sequence comparison demonstrated a close relationship among the M. austroafricanum strains. This is the first report suggesting the involvement of an alkane hydroxylase in TBA oxidation, a key step during MTBE metabolism.

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Acknowledgements

Nicolas Lopes Ferreira was partly supported by a Convention Industrielle de Formation par la REcherche (CIFRE) fellowship provided by the Association Nationale de la Recherche Technique (ANRT) and the IFP. We thank Senta Blanquet for providing us with the alkB primer sequences. We also thank Jan Van Beilen and Rémy Marchal for the helpful discussions.

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  1. Institut Français du Pétrole, 1-4, Avenue de Bois-Préau, 92852, Rueil-Malmaison, France

    Nicolas Lopes Ferreira, Hugues Mathis, Frédéric Monot & Françoise Fayolle-Guichard

  2. Biotechnology Research Institute, National Research Council of Canada, 6100 Royalmount Avenue, Montréal, Québec, H4P 2R2, Canada

    Nicolas Lopes Ferreira, Diane Labbé & Charles W. Greer

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  1. Nicolas Lopes Ferreira
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  2. Hugues Mathis
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  6. Françoise Fayolle-Guichard
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Correspondence to Françoise Fayolle-Guichard.

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Lopes Ferreira, N., Mathis, H., Labbé, D. et al. n-Alkane assimilation and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) oxidation capacity in Mycobacterium austroafricanum strains. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 75, 909–919 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-007-0892-1

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