Appl Environ Microbiol, January 1998, p. 1-6, Vol. 64, No. 1
Centre de Bioingénierie Gilbert Durand,
Unité Mixte de Recherche 5504 du Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique, Laboratoire associé à l'Institut National de
Recherche Agronomique, Institut National des Sciences
Appliquées, Complexe Scientifique de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse
Cedex 4, France
Received 11 August 1997/Accepted 4 October 1997
During batch growth of Ralstonia eutropha (previously
named Alcaligenes eutrophus) on phenol in the presence of
acetate, acetate was found to be the preferred substrate; this organic
acid was rapidly metabolized, and the specific rate of phenol
consumption was considerably decreased, although phenol consumption was
not abolished. This decrease corresponded to a drop in phenol
hydroxylase and catechol-2,3-dioxygenase specific activities, and the
synthesis of the latter was repressed at the transcriptional level.
Studies with a mutant not able to consume acetate indicated that the
organic acid itself triggers the repression. Other organic acids were also found to repress phenol degradation. One of these, benzoate, was
found to completely block the catabolism of phenol (diauxic growth). A
mutant unable to metabolize benzoate was also unable to develop on
benzoate-phenol mixtures, indicating that the organic acid rather than
a metabolite involved in benzoate degradation was responsible for the
repression observed.
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Repression of Phenol Catabolism by Organic
Acids in Ralstonia eutropha

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Centre de
Bioingénierie Gilbert Durand, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5504 du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire
associé à l'Institut National de Recherche Agronomique,
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Complexe Scientifique
de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse Cedex 4, France. Phone: 33 (0)5 61 55 94 89. Fax: 33 (0)5 61 55 94 00. E-mail: lindley{at}insa-tlse.fr.
Present address: ORSTOM-Laboratoire de Biotechnologie et de
Microbiologie Tropicale, 34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France.
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»