Identification of methyl halide-utilizing genes in the methyl bromide-utilizing bacterial strain IMB-1 suggests a high degree of conservation of methyl halide-specific genes in gram-negative bacteria

Strain IMB-1, an aerobic methylotrophic member of the alpha subgroup of the Proteobacteria, can grow with methyl bromide as a sole carbon and energy s ource. A single cmu gene cluster was identified in IMB-I that contained six open reading frames: cmuC, cmuA, orf146, paaE, hutI and partial metF. CmuA from IMB-1 has high sequence homology to the methyltransferase CmuA from M ethylobacterium chloromethanicum and Hyphomicrobium chloromethanicum and co ntains a C-terminal corrinoid-binding motif and an N-terminal methyltransfe rase motif. However, cmuB, identified in M. chloromethanicum and H. chlorom ethanicum, was not detected in IMB-1.