Appl Environ Microbiol, May 1998, p. 1933-1936, Vol. 64, No. 5
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Mikrobiologisches Institut, ETH Zürich, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Received 8 December 1997/Accepted 16 February 1998
Methylobacterium sp. strain CM4 metabolized chloromethane quantitatively with a molar yield of 2.8 g of whole-cell protein/mol of C. This value was similar to that observed after growth with methanol (2.9 g of protein/mol of C) and about three times larger than the yield with formate (0.94 g of protein/mol of C). Chloromethane dehalogenation activity was inducible. MiniTn5 transposon insertion mutants with altered growth characteristics with chloromethane and other C1 compounds were isolated and characterized. Nine of these were unable to grow with chloromethane but were able to grow with methanol, methylamine, or formate. Seventy-three transposon mutants that were defective in the utilization of either methanol, methylamine, methanol plus methylamine, or formate could still grow with chloromethane. Based on the protein yield data and the properties of the transposon mutants, we propose a pathway for chloromethane metabolism that depends on methyltransferase and dehydrogenase activities.
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