• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.16-25
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• 2001

A genomic library of biphenyl-degrading strain Comamonas sp. SMN4 was constructed by using the cosmid vector pWE15 and introduced into Escherichia coli. Of 1,000 recombinant clones tested, two clones that expressed 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl 1,2-dioxygenase activity were found (named pNB 1 and pNB2). From pNB1 clone, subclone pNA210, demonstrated 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl 1,2-dioxygenase activity, is isolated. 2,3-Dihydroxybiphenyl 1,2-dioxygenase (23DBDO, BphC) is an extradiol-type dioxygenase that involved in third step of biphenyl degradation pathway. The nucleotide sequence of the Comamonas sp. SMN4 gene bphC, which encodes 23DBDO, was cloned into a plasmid pQE30. The His-tagged 23DBDO produced by a recombinant Escherichia coli, SG 13009 (pREP4)(pNPC), and purified with a Ni-nitrilotriacetic acid resin affinity column using the His-bind Qiagen system. The His-tagged 23DBDO construction was active. SDS-PAGE analysis of the purified active 23DBDO gave a single band of 32 kDa; this is in agreement with the size of the bphC coding region. The 23DBDO exhibited maximum activity at pH 9.0. The CD data for the pHs, showed that this enzyme had a typical a-helical folding structures at neutral pHs ranged from pH 4.5 to pH 9.0. This structure maintained up to pH 10.5. However, this high stable folding strucure was converted to unfolded structure in acidic region (pH 2.5) or in high pH (pH 12.0). The result of CD spectra observed with pH effects on 23DBDO activity, suggested that charge transition by pH change have affected change of conformational structure for 23DBDO catalytic reaction. The $K_m$ for 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl, 3-metylcatechol, 4-methylcatechol and catechol was 11.7 $\mu$M, 24 $\mu$M, 50 mM and 625 $\mu$M.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.177-181
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• 2003

Eleven bacterial strains which are able to utilize terephthalic acid as a carbon and an energy source for growth were isolated from the soil of 7 water quality evaluation points in Kyonggi area of Korea. Phthalic acid isomer degrading activity of the isolates from the 4 contaminated points was higher than those from the 3 clean points. Among 11 isolates, 4 isolates which have high terephthalic acid degrading activity and degrade two phthalic acid isomers were identified by partal 16S rDNA sequence determination. One of them was identified as Pseudomonas putida, and the others as Comamonas testosteroni. Thus a large number of phthalic acid isomer degrading bacteria in domestic soil were inferred as C. testosteroni. On the basis of these results, the PCR detection of C. testosteroni in soil was applied to monitor soil contamination by phthalic acid isomers. The DNA of C. test-osteroni extracted from 4 g soil was directly detected by PCR with C. testosteroni specific primer pair. The amount of PCR products was different according to sampling sites and more PCR products were obtained from contaminated sites than those from clean sites (Gulpo-chun＞Anyang-chun＞Hwangguji-chun>Shin-chun＞Huk-chun＞Pukhan-river>Kapyeong-chun). This result was coincided with that of the viable cell counts for terephthalic acid degrading bacteria.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.1234-1240
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• 2015

Heat shock RNA 1 (HSR1) is described as a "eukaryotic heat-sensing noncoding RNA" that regulates heat shock response in human and other eukaryotic cells. Highly conserved HSR1 sequences have been identified from humans, hamsters, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis elegans, and Arabidopsis. In a previous study, however, it was suggested that HSR1 had originated from a bacterial genome. HSR1 showed no detectible nucleotide sequence similarity to any eukaryotic sequences but harbored a protein coding region that showed amino-acid sequence similarity to bacterial voltage-gated chloride channel proteins. The bacterial origin of HSR1 was not convincible because the nucleotide sequence similarity was marginal. In this study, we have found that a genomic contig sequence of Comamonas testosteroni strain JL14 contained a sequence virtually identical to that of HSR1, decisively confirming the bacterial origin of HSR1. Thus, HSR1 is an exogenous RNA, which can ectopically trigger heat shock response in eukaryotes. Therefore, it is no longer appropriate to cite HSR1 as a "eukaryotic functional noncoding RNA."

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.156-161
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• 2020

Since industrialization, the production and utilization of various chemicals has contributed to improving the quality of our lives, but the subsequent discharge of massive waste is inevitable, and environmental pollution is becoming more serious every day. Exposure to chemicals as a result of environmental pollution is having a negative effect on human health and the ecosystem, and cleaning up the polluted environment that can affect our lives is a very important issue. Toxic aromatic compounds have been detected frequently in soil, groundwater, and wastewater because of the extensive use of oil products, and phenol, which is used to produce synthetic resins, textiles, and dyes, is one of the major pollutants, along with insecticides and preservatives. Phenol can cause dyspnea, headache, vomiting, mutation, and carcinogenesis. Phenol-degrading bacterium DWB-1-8 was isolated from the activated sludge of textile wastewater; this strain was identified as Comamonas testosteroni by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The optimal culture conditions for the cell growth and degradation of phenol were 0.7% K₂HPO₄, 0.6% NaH₂PO₄, 0.1% NH₄NO₃, 0.015% MgSO₄·7H₂O, 0.001% FeSO₄·7H₂O, an initial pH of 7, and a temperature of 30℃. The strain was also able to grow by using other toxic compounds, such as benzene, toluene, or xylene (BTX), as the sole source of carbon.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2003

The aim of this work was to investigate the characterization and sequence of catechol 2,3-dioxygenase isolated from Delfia sp. JK-2, which could utilize aniline as sole carbon, nitrogen and energy source. In initial experiments, several characteristics of C2,3O separated with ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-sepharose were investigated. Specific activity of C2,3O was approximately 4.72 unit/mg. C2,3O demonstrated its enzyme activity to other substrates, catechol and 4-methylcatechol. The optimum temperature of C2,3O was $$Cu^{2+}$^{\circ}C$, and the optimal pH was approximately 8. Metal ions such as $Ag^{+}$, $Hg^{+}$, and $Cu^{2+}$ showed inhibitory effect on the activity of C2,3O. Molecular weight of the enzyme was determined to approximately 35 kDa by SDS-PAGE. N-terminal amino acid sequence of C2,3O was analyzed as $^{1}MGVMRIG-HASLKVMDMDA- AVRHYENV^{26}$, and exhibited high sequence homology with that of C2,30 from Pseudomonas sp. AW-2, Comamonas sp. JS765, Comamonas testosteroni and Burkholderia sp. RPO07. PCR product was amplified with the primers derived from N-terminal amino acid sequence. In this work, we found that the amino acid sequence of Delftia sp. JK-2 showed high sequence homology of C2,3O from Pseudomonas sp. AW-2 (100%) and Comamonas sp. JS765 (97%).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.302-311
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• 2004

Comamonas testosteroni (formerly Pseudomonas sp.) NCIMB 10643 can grow on biphenyl and alkylbenzenes $(C_2-C_7)$ via 3-substituted catechols. Thus, to identify the genes encoding the degradation, transposon-mutagenesis was carried out using pAG408, a promoter-probe mini-transposon with a green fluorescent protein (GFP), as a reporter. A mutant, NT-1, which was unable to grow on alkylbenzenes and biphenyl, accumulated catechols and exhibited an enhanced expression of GFP upon exposure to these substrates, indicating that the gfp had been inserted in a gene encoding a broad substrate range catechol 2,3-dioxygenase. The genes (2,826 bp) flanking the gfp cloned from an SphI-digested fragment contained three complete open reading frames that were designated bphCDorfl. The deduced amino acid sequences of bphCDorfl were identical to 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl 1,2-dioxygenase (BphC), 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-6-phenylhexa-2,4-dienoate hydrolase (BphD), and OrfI, respectively, that are all involved in the degradation of biphenyl/4-chlorobiphenyl (bph) by Ralstonia oxalatica A5. The deduced amino acid sequence of the orfl revealed a similarity to those of outer membrane proteins belonging to the OmpW family. The introduction of the bphCDorfl genes enabled the NT-l mutant to grow on aromatic hydrocarbons. In addition, PCR analysis indicated that the DNA sequence and gene organization of the bph operon were closely related to those in the bph operon from Tn4371 identified in strain A5. Furthermore, strain A5 was also able to grow on a similar set of alkylbenzenes as strain NCIMB 10643, demonstrating that, among the identified aromatic hydrocarbon degradation pathways, the bph degradation pathway related to Tn4371 was the most versatile in catabolizing a variety of aromatic hydrocarbons of mono- and bicyclic benzenes.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.60-64
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• 2013

Two strains were isolated from the traditional Deep Blue Sediment Dye of Polygoum tinctoria, Niram, and temporarily named Niram A and Niram B, respectively. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain Niram A and B were closely related to the members of the genus Comamonas and Microbacterium, respectively. Strain Niram A exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to C. aquatica LMG $2370^T$ (98.06%). Strain Niram B showed 100% homology with M. oxydans DSM 20578T and M. maritypicum DSM $12512^T$. The growth of the strain Niram A and B was not inhibited in Niram medium containing high calcium concentration without free sugar as carbon source. The reducing Niram is greenish. Therefore, the reducing ability on the Niram of the strains Niram A and B were determined with the color difference of the $a^*$ values of Niram fermented-fluids. The $a^*$ value indicates the level of redness (positive value) or greenness (negative value). The green color is increasing towards the negative value. In all samples fermented for 10 days, the $a^*$ values among samples were no significant difference. However, samples fermented for 15 days have an appreciable change. After fermentation for 15 days, the control Niram sample had $-3.96{\pm}0.02$ of the $a^*$ value. On the other hand, the Niram samples fermented with the strain Niram A and B showed $-4.20{\pm}0.02$ of the $a^*$ value and $-7.86{\pm}0.03$ of the $a^*$ value, respectively. In the reducing ability on the Niram, the strain Niram B was significantly better than the strain Niram A.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.237-241
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• 1997

Two isolated strains, Comamonas testosteroni CPW301 and Arthrobacter ureafaciens CPR706, were able to use 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) as a sole carbon and energy source. CPW301 was found to degrade 4-CP via a meta-cleavage pathway in which the chloro-substituent was eliminated even when 4-chlorocatechol was cleaved by the catechol 2, 3-dioxygenase. In contrast, CPR706 removed chloride from 4-CP prior to the ring-fission reaction, producing hydroquinone as a transient intermediate during 4-CP degradation. CPR706 exhibited much higher tolerance for 4-CP than CPW301, which was indicated by the maximum degradable concentration and degradation rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Fisheries Technology Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.233-234
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• 2001

Marine microorganisms have a diverse range of enzymatic activity and are capable of catalyzing various biochemical reactions with diverse enzymes. There have been several studies reporting that various sulfatases isolated from such bacteria as Klebsiella pneumoniae (Miech et al., 1998), Salmonella typhimurium (Henderson and Milazzo, 1979; Murooka and Harada, 1981), Serratia marcescens (Murooka et al., 1980), Pseudomonas aeruginosa(Delisle and Milazzo, 1970), and Comamonas terigena(Fitzgerald and Cline, 1977). (omitted)

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.154-161
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• 2011

The species diversity of Betaproteobacteria in the Sumunmulbengdui Wetland Area of Jeju Island was studied using culture based techniques, and candidates for novel taxa were screened. Twenty two novel bacterial strains belonging to Betaproteobacteria were isolated, which could be assigned to 16 genera of 4 families, namely Burkholderiaceae (3 strains), Comamonadaceae (8 strains), Oxalobacteraceae (5 strains), Neisseriaceae (5 strains), and an unassigned group belonging to Burkholderiales (1 strain) based 16S rRNA gene sequences. The genus Chromobacterium contained three candidates of novel species, and each of the genera Burkholderia, Comamonas, Pelomonas and Herbaspirillum contained two candidates respectively. Through the analysis of membrane fatty acid profiles and physiological properties using API 20NE as well as morphological and cultural properties, each of the isolates was found to form potentially novel species. Brief description of 22 potential candidates for new species or subspecies is given accordingly.