Weijue Chen

Aerobic alkane oxidation is commonly found in Actinobacteria for sole carbon and energy source, and promotes cometabolic degradation on environmental contaminants. This wok chose Mycolicibacterium sphagni ENV482, an ethane-oxidizing bacterium with the biodegradation capability on 1,4-dioxane and trichloroethylene, as a model to investigate the enzymes involving in alkane/THF oxidation and cometabolic degradation of contaminants via genomic and proteomic analyses. The study discovered multiple alkane-oxidizing enzymes involving in the first step of gaseous alkane oxidation, and other enzymes participating the downstream steps in alkane metabolism pathway.