ORF18-disrupted mutant of Comamonas testosteroni TA441 accumulates significant amounts of 9,17-dioxo-1,2,3,4,10,19-hexanorandrostan-5-oic acid and its derivatives after incubation with steroids.

In a steroid degradation gene cluster of Comamonas testosteroni TA441 consisting of ORF18, 17 and tesIHA2A1DEFG, ORF18 was implicated in encoding a CoA-transferase by database searches, but the matching substrate was not clear. In this study, ORF18 was shown to be necessary for conversion of 9,17-dioxo-1,2,3,4,10,19-hexanorandrostan-5-oic acid, a product of hydrolysis of 4,5-9,10-diseco-3-hydroxy-5,9,17-trioxoandrosta-1(10),2-dien-4-oic acid in steroid degradation by TA441. The ORF18-disrupted mutant accumulates 7-hydroxy-9,17-dioxo-1,2,3,4,10,19-hexanorandrostan-5-oic acid and 7,12-dihydroxy-9,17-dioxo-1,2,3,4,10,19-hexanorandrostan-5-oic acid when incubated with chenodeoxycholic acid and cholic acid, respectively.