Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) represent a class of organic compounds that negatively affect human health. These compounds are of toxicological concern because some of them have been identified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic. Burkholderia fungorum DBT1 is a bacterial strain, first isolated from an oil refinery discharge, which can utilize dibenzothiophene (DBT), phenanthtrene and napthalene as substrates for growth. This strain is capable of degrading DBT nearly completely through the “Kodama pathway” more efficiently than others. The work presented here is aimed at a structural characterization at the molecular level of the proteins involved in the first step of the PAH degradation pathway, i.e., the Rieske Oxygense (RO) complex. Thus, using state-of-the-art structural bioinformatics tools we have built the structural models of each of the members of the RO complex encoded in the Burkholderia fungorum DBT1 strain. The structural characterization combined with future molecular biology experiments may give important insights into the functioning of this particular strain.
Structural Characterization of the Rieske Oxygenase Complex from Burkholderia fungorum DBT1 strain: Insights from bioinformatics
Piccoli, Stefano;LAMPIS, Silvia;VALLINI, Giovanni;GIORGETTI, ALEJANDRO
2012-01-01
Abstract
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) represent a class of organic compounds that negatively affect human health. These compounds are of toxicological concern because some of them have been identified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic. Burkholderia fungorum DBT1 is a bacterial strain, first isolated from an oil refinery discharge, which can utilize dibenzothiophene (DBT), phenanthtrene and napthalene as substrates for growth. This strain is capable of degrading DBT nearly completely through the “Kodama pathway” more efficiently than others. The work presented here is aimed at a structural characterization at the molecular level of the proteins involved in the first step of the PAH degradation pathway, i.e., the Rieske Oxygense (RO) complex. Thus, using state-of-the-art structural bioinformatics tools we have built the structural models of each of the members of the RO complex encoded in the Burkholderia fungorum DBT1 strain. The structural characterization combined with future molecular biology experiments may give important insights into the functioning of this particular strain.
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