Involvement of naphthalene dioxygenase in indole-3-acetic acid biosynthesis by Pseudomonas putida

Two variants of plant growth-promoting strain Pseudomonas putida BS1380 har boring the naphthalene degradative plasmid pBS2 and the recombinant plasmid pNAU64 that contains the genes encoding for naphthalene dioxygenase were c onstructed by conjugation. The ability of this strain to produce phytohormo ne indole-3-acetic acid from different carbon sources was studied. Indole-3 -acetic acid synthesis by these transconjugants was 15-30 times as much in contrast to a wild-type strain with glucose as the sole carbon source. No d ifference was observed in other carbon or nitrogen sources. It is suggested that naphthalene dioxygenase is involved in the conversion of indole-3-pyr uvic acid to indole-3-acetic acid. (C) 2000 Federation of European Microbio logical Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.