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Appl Environ Microbiol, February 1998, p. 399-404, Vol. 64, No. 2
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Enzymatic Combustion of Aromatic and Aliphatic Compounds by Manganese Peroxidase from Nematoloma frowardii

Martin Hofrichter,^* Katrin Scheibner, Ivonne Schneegaß, and Wolfgang Fritsche

Institute of Microbiology, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, D-07743 Jena, Germany

Received 3 September 1997/Accepted 31 October 1997

The direct involvement of manganese peroxidase (MnP) in the mineralization of natural and xenobiotic compounds was evaluated. A broad spectrum of aromatic substances were partially mineralized by the MnP system of the white rot fungus Nematoloma frowardii. The cell-free MnP system partially converted several aromatic compounds, including [U-¹⁴C]pentachlorophenol ([U-¹⁴C]PCP), [U-¹⁴C]catechol, [U-¹⁴C]tyrosine, [U-¹⁴C]tryptophan, [4,5,9,10-¹⁴C]pyrene, and [ring U-¹⁴C]2-amino-4,6-dinitrotoluene ([¹⁴C]2-AmDNT), to ¹⁴CO₂. Mineralization was dependent on the ratio of MnP activity to concentration of reduced glutathione (thiol-mediated oxidation), a finding which was demonstrated by using [¹⁴C]2-AmDNT as an example. At [¹⁴C]2-AmDNT concentrations ranging from 2 to 120 µM, the amount of released ¹⁴CO₂ was directly proportional to the concentration of [¹⁴C]2-AmDNT. The formation of highly polar products was also observed with [¹⁴C]2-AmDNT and [U-¹⁴C]PCP; these products were probably low-molecular-weight carboxylic acids. Among the aliphatic compounds tested, glyoxalate was mineralized to the greatest extent. Eighty-six percent of the ¹⁴COOH-glyoxalate and 9% of the ¹⁴CHO-glyoxalate were converted to ¹⁴CO₂, indicating that decarboxylation reactions may be the final step in MnP-catalyzed mineralization. The extracellular enzymatic combustion catalyzed by MnP could represent an important pathway for the formation of carbon dioxide from recalcitrant xenobiotic compounds and may also have general significance in the overall biodegradation of resistant natural macromolecules, such as lignins and humic substances.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Technical Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Philosophenweg 12, D-07743 Jena, Germany. Phone: 0049 3641 630950. Fax: 0049 3641 631237. E-mail: hofrichter{at}merlin.biologie.uni-jena.de.

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