Nv. Doronina et al., ISOLATION AND INITIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF AEROBIC CHLOROMETHANE-UTILIZING BACTERIA, FEMS microbiology letters, 142(2-3), 1996, pp. 179-183
Eight strains of non-methane-utilizing aerobic methylotrophic bacteria
able to grow on chloromethane as the carbon and energy source have be
en isolated. Based on their phenotypic and genomic characteristics the
new isolates were classified as Hyphomicrobium spp. (strains CM1, CM2
, CM9, CM29, CM35) and Methylobacterium spp. (strains CM4, CM30, CM34)
. All the strains possessed an inducible yet unknown enzyme that catal
yzed conversion of chloromethane to HCl and formaldehyde. The latter w
as oxidized via formate to CO2 or assimilated through icl(+) or icl(-)
variants of the serine pathway.