Abstract
Tetralin (1,2,3,4-tetrahydonaphthalene) is a recalcitrant compound that consists of an aromatic and an alicyclic ring. It is found in crude oils, produced industrially from naphthalene or anthracene, and widely used as an organic solvent. Its toxicity is due to the alteration of biological membranes by its hydrophobic character and to the formation of toxic hydroperoxides. Two unrelated bacteria, Sphingopyxis granuli strain TFA and Rhodococcus sp. strain TFB were isolated from the same niche as able to grow on tetralin as the sole source of carbon and energy. In this review, we provide an overview of current knowledge on tetralin catabolism at biochemical, genetic and regulatory levels in both strains. Although they share the same biodegradation strategy and enzymatic activities, no evidences of horizontal gene transfer between both bacteria have been found. Moreover, the regulatory elements that control the expression of the gene clusters are completely different in each strain. A special consideration is given to the complex regulation discovered in TFA since three regulatory systems, one of them involving an unprecedented communication between the catabolic pathway and the regulatory elements, act together at transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels to optimize tetralin biodegradation gene expression to the environmental conditions.
Highlights
The ability of microorganisms to degrade a variety of environmental pollutants and to use them as growth substrates is a powerful tool to clean up hazardous contaminants that are causing irreversible damage to the biosphere
Many hydrocarbons such as most alkanes can be efficiently degraded by several microorganisms [1] and many aromatic compounds can serve as growth substrates for a large variety of bacteria [2]
The organic solvent tetralin is composed of an aromatic and an alicyclic ring, none of which
Summary
The ability of microorganisms to degrade a variety of environmental pollutants and to use them as growth substrates is a powerful tool to clean up hazardous contaminants that are causing irreversible damage to the biosphere. Tetralin (1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene) is a bicyclic molecule composed of an aromatic and an alicyclic ring It is naturally found in different crude oil reservoirs and produced for industrial purposes from naphthalene by catalytic hydrogenation or from anthracene by cracking. Strain TFB based on the induction in tetralin-grown cells of homologous enzymes to the TFA ones. These two different bacteria were isolated from the river. We highlight the contributions that the study of the tetralin degradation genes regulation in each strain has made to understand the regulation of gene expression of other degradation pathways, and to the knowledge of bacterial mechanisms of gene regulation in general
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