• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Involvement of Two Latex-Clearing Proteins during Rubber Degradation and Insights into the Subsequent Degradation Pathway Revealed by the Genome Sequence of Gordonia polyisoprenivorans Strain VH2
  • Contributor: Hiessl, Sebastian; Schuldes, Jörg; Thürmer, Andrea; Halbsguth, Tobias; Bröker, Daniel; Angelov, Angel; Liebl, Wolfgang; Daniel, Rolf; Steinbüchel, Alexander
  • imprint: American Society for Microbiology, 2012
  • Published in: Applied and Environmental Microbiology
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1128/aem.07969-11
  • ISSN: 0099-2240; 1098-5336
  • Keywords: Ecology ; Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ; Food Science ; Biotechnology
  • Origination:
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  • Description: <jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title> <jats:p> The increasing production of synthetic and natural poly( <jats:italic>cis</jats:italic> -1,4-isoprene) rubber leads to huge challenges in waste management. Only a few bacteria are known to degrade rubber, and little is known about the mechanism of microbial rubber degradation. The genome of <jats:named-content content-type="genus-species">Gordonia polyisoprenivorans</jats:named-content> strain VH2, which is one of the most effective rubber-degrading bacteria, was sequenced and annotated to elucidate the degradation pathway and other features of this actinomycete. The genome consists of a circular chromosome of 5,669,805 bp and a circular plasmid of 174,494 bp with average GC contents of 67.0% and 65.7%, respectively. It contains 5,110 putative protein-coding sequences, including many candidate genes responsible for rubber degradation and other biotechnically relevant pathways. Furthermore, we detected two homologues of a latex-clearing protein, which is supposed to be a key enzyme in rubber degradation. The deletion of these two genes for the first time revealed clear evidence that latex-clearing protein is essential for the microbial utilization of rubber. Based on the genome sequence, we predict a pathway for the microbial degradation of rubber which is supported by previous and current data on transposon mutagenesis, deletion mutants, applied comparative genomics, and literature search. </jats:p>
  • Access State: Open Access