Abstract
Bacillus licheniformis strain TAB7 is a bacterium used as a commercial deodorizing agent for compost in Japan. In this work, its ability to biotransform the following monocyclic phenolic compounds was assessed: ferulate, vanillate, p-coumarate, caffeate, protocatechuate, syringate, vanillin, and cinnamate (a precursor for some phenolic compounds). These compounds are abundant in composting material and are reported to have allelopathic properties. They come from sources such as plant material decomposition or agro-industrial waste. Biotransformation assays were carried out in LB supplemented with 0.2 mg/mL of an individual phenolic compound and incubated for up to 15 days followed by extraction and HPLC analysis. The results showed that TAB7 could biotransform ferulate, caffeate, p-coumarate, vanillate, protocatechuate, and vanillin. It, however, had a poor ability to transform cinnamate and syringate. LC-MS/MS analysis showed that ferulate was transformed into 4-vinylguaiacol as the final product, while caffeate was transformed into 4-ethylcatechol. TAB7 genome analysis suggested that, while TAB7 may not mineralize phenolic compounds, it harbored genes possibly encoding phenolic acid decarboxylase, vanillate decarboxylase, and some protocatechuate degradation pathway enzymes, which are involved in the catabolism of phenolic compounds known to have negative allelopathy on some plants. The results thus suggested that TAB7 can reduce such phenolic compounds in compost.
Highlights
Bacillus licheniformis strain TAB7 is a thermophile that has been isolated as a Tween 20 degrader from composting livestock excrement in Japan [1]
Plant-based industries such as wood debarking, cork making, wineries, tea, coffee production, kraft pulp making, and related industries release phenolic compounds as waste into the environment [3]. Monocyclic phenolic compounds such as ferulate, p-coumarate, caffeate, syringate, vanillate, and others are known to be among the most important and abundant class of allelochemicals [4]
We show, through experimental work, that the Bacillus licheniformis strain TAB7, which is used as a deodorizing agent for compost, has the ability to biotransform some monocyclic
Summary
Bacillus licheniformis strain TAB7 is a thermophile that has been isolated as a Tween 20 degrader from composting livestock excrement in Japan [1]. The ability of TAB7 to biotransform phenolic compounds such as monocyclic hydroxycinnamates (e.g., ferulate and caffeate) and hydroxybenzoates (e.g., vannilate, protocatechuate and vanillin) could potentially have important implications because these phenolic compounds are important environmental pollutants [3] abundant in composting material and whose role in negative allelopathy has long been established [4,5,6,7,8,9] Their origin is both natural and industrial. Plant-based industries such as wood debarking, cork making, wineries, tea, coffee production, kraft pulp making, and related industries release phenolic compounds as waste into the environment [3] Monocyclic phenolic compounds such as ferulate, p-coumarate, caffeate, syringate, vanillate, and others are known to be among the most important and abundant class of allelochemicals [4]. Some phytotoxic phenolic compounds show synergy in their phytotoxicity lowering their inhibitory threshold [7,8]
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