Rhodoccocus rhodochrous B-276 grown on propane expresses a unique acetone-degrading enzyme

CHED 896

Christian A. Plewik, cplewik@gmail.com, Chris Broberg, cbroberg@csuchico.edu, and Daniel D. Clark. Department of Chemistry, California State University, Chico, Chico, CA 95929
Bacterial propane metabolism is thought to include acetone as an intermediate. Rhodococcus rhodochrous strain B-276 has been shown to express an acetone carboxylase enzyme when grown on acetone. It has been previously demonstrated using SDS-PAGE that acetone-grown R. rhodochrous strain B-276 expresses the 74-kDa and 85-kDa acetone carboxylase peptides, whereas the propane-grown strain does not. Our study has shown that the propane-grown R. rhodochrous strain B-276 degrades acetone in the presence of transcriptional and translational inactivators. Expansion of the bacterial acetone metabolic pathway infers the enzyme expressed by propane-grown R. rhodochrous strain B-276 to be an acetone monooxygenase.