Gene components responsible for discrete substrate specificity in the metabolism of biphenyl (bph operon) and toluene (tod operon).

bph operons coding for biphenyl-polychlorinated biphenyl degradation in Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes KF707 and Pseudomonas putida KF715 and tod operons coding for toluene-benzene metabolism in P. putida F1 are very similar in gene organization as well as size and homology of the corresponding enzymes (G. J. Zylstra and D. T. Gibson, J. Biol. Chem. 264:14940-14946, 1989; K. Taira, J. Hirose, S. Hayashida, and K. Furukawa, J. Biol. Chem. 267:4844-4853, 1992), despite their discrete substrate ranges for metabolism. The gene components responsible for substrate specificity between the bph and tod operons were investigated. The large subunit of the terminal dioxygenase (encoded by bphA1 and todC1) and the ring meta-cleavage compound hydrolase (bphD and todF) were critical for their discrete metabolic specificities, as shown by the following results. (i) Introduction of todC1C2 (coding for the large and small subunits of the terminal dioxygenase in toluene metabolism) or even only todC1 into biphenyl-utilizing P. pseudoalcaligenes KF707 and P. putida KF715 allowed them to grow on toluene-benzene by coupling with the lower benzoate meta-cleavage pathway. Introduction of the bphD gene (coding for 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-6-phenylhexa-2,4-dienoate hydrolase) into toluene-utilizing P. putida F1 permitted growth on biphenyl. (ii) With various bph and tod mutant strains, it was shown that enzyme components of ferredoxin (encoded by bphA3 and todB), ferredoxin reductase (bphA4 and todA), and dihydrodiol dehydrogenase (bphB and todD) were complementary with one another. (iii) Escherichia coli cells carrying a hybrid gene cluster of todClbphA2A3A4BC (constructed by replacing bphA1 with todC1) converted toluene to a ring meta-cleavage 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-hepta-2,4-dienoic acid, indicating that TodC1 formed a functional multicomponent dioxygenase associated with BphA2 (a small subunit of the terminal dioxygenase in biphenyl metabolism), BphA3, and BphA4.