Bioconversion of Cholesterol by Organic Solvent Tolerant Pseudomonas savastanoi BCNU 106

An organic solvent-tolerant Pseudomonas savastanoi strain BCNU 106 was isolated.. This bacterium was gram negative rod, and showed oxidase positive, catalase positive, and decaboxylase positive reactions. The Pseudomonas strain oxidized cholesterol on the medium supplemented with an organic solvent. The strain BCNU 106 is able to grow in presence of organic solvents of which log $P_{ow}$ is between 1.5 to 7.0. The strain was well grown in a medium supplemented with a 10% volume of a organic solvent (toluene, p-xylene, cyclohexane, mesitlylene) containing $cholesterol(20mg/m{\ell)$. Major conversion compound were 7-dehydrocholesteryl dimethylphosphate, cholesta-4,7-dien-3-one, and cholesta-3,5-dieone.

P. savastanoi BCNU 106 균주에의해 cholesterol 이 전환됨을 확인하였고 toluene에서보다는 p-xylene 에서 전환율이 높음을 관찰할 수 있었다. 또 균주 배양후 cholesterol이 녹아있는 유기용매를 첨가하였을 때가 전환율이 높음을 확인 할 수 있었다