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Zoogloea oleivorans, capable of using toluene as a sole source of carbon and energy, was earlier found to be an active degrader under microaerobic conditions in aquifer samples. To uncover the genetic background of the ability of microaerobic toluene degradation in Z. oleivorans, the whole-genome sequence of the type strain BucT was revealed. Metatranscriptomic sequence reads, originated from a previous SIP study on microaerobic toluene degradation, were mapped on the genome. The genome (5.68 Mb) had a mean G + C content of 62.5%, 5005 protein coding gene sequences and 80 RNA genes. Annotation predicted that 66 genes were involved in the metabolism of aromatic compounds. Genome analysis revealed the presence of a cluster with genes coding for a multicomponent phenol-hydroxylase system and a complete catechol meta-cleavage pathway. Another cluster flanked by mobile-element protein coding genes coded a partial catechol meta-cleavage pathway including a subfamily I.2.C-type extradiol dioxygenase. Analysis of metatranscriptomic data of a microaerobic toluene-degrading enrichment, containing Z . oleivorans as an active-toluene degrader revealed that a toluene dioxygenase-like enzyme was responsible for the ring-hydroxylation, while enzymes of the partial catechol meta-cleavage pathway coding cluster were responsible for further degradation of the aromatic ring under microaerobic conditions. This further advances our understanding of aromatic hydrocarbon degradation between fully oxic and strictly anoxic conditions.

The enzyme activity synthesizing poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) was mainly localized in the PHB-containing particulate fraction of Zoogloea ramigera I-16-M, when it grew flocculatedly in a medium supplemented with glucose. On the other hand, the enzyme activity remained in the soluble fraction when the bacterium grew dispersedly in a glucose-starved medium. The soluble PHB synthase activity became associated with the particulate fraction as PHB synthesis was initiated on the addition of glucose to the dispersed culture. Conversely, the enzyme activity was released from the PHB-containing granules to the soluble fraction when the flocculated culture was kept incubated without supplementing the medium with glucose. PHB synthase was also incorporated into the newly formed PHB fraction when partially purified soluble PHB synthase was incubated with D(-)-beta-hydroxybutyryl CoA in vitro. Although attempts to solubilize the particulate enzyme were unsuccessful, and the soluble enzyme became extremely unstable in advanced stages of purification, both PHB synthases had the same strict substrate specificity for D(-)-beta-hydroxybutyryl CoA, and showed the same pH optimum at 7.0.

Zoogloea ramigera I-16 M was found to contain two stereospecific acetoacetyl CoA reductases; one was NADP+-linked and D(-)-beta-hydroxybutyryl CoA specific and the other was NAD+-linked and L(+)-isomer specific. The NADP+-linked enzyme, purified approximately 150-fold, had a pH optimum for the reduction of acetoacetyl CoA at 8.1, but no definite pH optimum for the oxidation for beta-hydroxybutyryl CoA. The apparent Michaelis constants for acetoacetyl CoA and NADPH were 8.3 and 21 micrometer, respectively. The enzyme was markedly inhibited by acetoacetyl CoA at concentrations higher than 10 micrometer. The incorporation of [1-14C]acetyl CoA into poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) by bacterial crude extract (containing beta-ketothiolase, acetoacetyl CoA reductases, enoyl CoA hydratases and PHB synthases) or by a system reconstituted from purified preparations of beta-ketothiolase, acetoacetyl CoA reductase and PHB synthase, was observed only in the presence of NADPH, but not NADH. Among various enzymes involved in PHB metabolism, only the specific activity of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase was elevated 5-fold within 2 h after the addition of glucose to the cells grown in the basal medium. These findings suggest that, in Z. ramigera I-16M, acetoacetyl CoA is directly reduced to D(-)-beta-hydroxybutyryl CoA by the NADP+-dependent reductase, and PHB synthesis is at least partially controled by NADPH availability through glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase.