LOCALIZATION AND ORGANIZATION OF PHENOL DEGRADATION GENES OF PSEUDOMONAS-PUTIDA STRAIN-H

The genetic organization of the DNA region encoding the phenol degrada tion pathway of Pseudomonas putida H has been investigated. This strai n can utilize phenol or some of its methylated derivatives as its sole source of carbon and energy. The first step in this process is the co nversion of phenol into catechol. Catechol is then further metabolized via the meta-cleavage pathway into TCA cycle intermediates. Genes enc oding these enzymes are clustered on the plasmid pPGH1. A region of co ntiguous DNA spanning about 16 kb contains all of the genetic informat ion necessary for inducible phenol degradation. The analysis of mutant s generated by insertion of transposons and cassettes indicates that a ll of the catabolic genes are contained in a single operon. This codes for a multicomponent phenol hydroxylase and meta-cleavage pathway enz ymes. Catabolic genes are subject to positive control by the gene prod uct(s) of a second locus.