Bacterial Decarboxylation of o-Phthalic Acids.

The decarboxylation of phthalic acids was studied with Bacillus sp. strain FO, a marine mixed culture ON-7, and Pseudomonas testosteroni. The mixed culture ON-7, when grown anaerobically on phthalate but incubated aerobically with chloramphenicol, quantitatively converted phthalic acid to benzoic acid. Substituted phthalic acids were also decarboxylated: 4,5-dihydroxyphthalic acid to protocatechuic acid; 4-hydroxyphthalic and 4-chlorophthalic acids to 3-hydroxybenzoic and 3-chlorobenzoic acids, respectively; and 3-fluorophthalic acid to 2-and 3-fluorobenzoic acids. Bacillus sp. strain FO gave similar results except that 4,5-dihydroxyphthalic acid was not metabolized, and both 3- and 4-hydroxybenzoic acids were produced from 4-hydroxyphthalic acid. P. testosteroni decarboxylated 4-hydroxyphthalate (to 3-hydroxybenzoate) and 4,5-dihydroxyphthalate but not phthalic acid and halogenated phthalates. Thus, P. testosteroni and the mixed culture ON-7 possessed 4,5-dihydroxyphthalic acid decarboxylase, previously described in P. testosteroni, that metabolized 4,5-dihydroxyphthalic acid and specifically decarboxylated 4-hydroxyphthalic acid to 3-hydroxybenzoic acid. The mixed culture ON-7 and Bacillus sp. strain FO also possessed a novel decarboxylase that metabolized phthalic acid and halogenated phthalates, but not 4,5-dihydroxyphthalate, and randomly decarboxylated 4-hydroxyphthalic acid. The decarboxylation of phthalic acid is suggested to involve an initial reduction to 1,2-dihydrophthalic acid followed by oxidative decarboxylation to benzoic acid.