GENETIC-ENGINEERING TO CONTAIN THE VITREOSCILLA HEMOGLOBIN GENE ENHANCES DEGRADATION OF BENZOIC-ACID BY XANTHOMONAS-MALTOPHILIA

Xanthomonas maltophilia was transformed with the gene encoding Vitreos cilla (bacterial) hemoglobin, vgb, and the growth of the engineered st rain was compared with that of the untransformed strain using benzoic acid as the sole carbon source. In general, growth of the engineered s train was greater than that of the untransformed strain; this was true for experiments using both overnight cultures and log phase cells as inocula, but particularly for the latter. In both cases the engineered strain was also more efficient than the untransformed strain in conve rting benzoic acid into biomass. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.