GENETICS OF NAPHTHALENE AND PHENANTHRENE DEGRADATION BY COMAMONAS-TESTOSTERONI

Naphthalene and phenanthrene have long been used as model compounds to investigate the ability of bacteria to degrade polycyclic aromatic hy drocarbons, The catabolic pathways have been determined, several of th e enzymes have been purified to homogeneity, and genes have been clone d and sequenced, However, the majority of this work has been performed with fast growing Pseudomonas strains related to the archetypal napht halene-degrading P. putida strains G7 and NCIB 9816-4, Recently Comamo nas testosteroni strains able to degrade naphthalene and phenanthrene have been isolated and shown to possess genes for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon degradation that are different from the canonical genes fo und in Pseudomonas species, For instance, C. testosteroni GZ39 has gen es for naphthalene and phenanthrene degradation which are not only dif ferent from those found in Pseudomonas species but are also arranged i n a different configuration, C. testosteroni GZ42, on the other hand, has genes for naphthalene and phenanthrene degradation which are arran ged almost the same as those found in Pseudomonas species but show sig nificant divergence in their sequences.