Figure 5

Overview of the degradation capacity of aromatic compounds by B. petrii. Aromatic compounds (boxed) are funneled through a variety of peripheral reactions (represented by arrows) into central intermediates, which are then processed by a central pathway to TCA cycle intermediates. However, neither salicylate nor phenylacetate could be used by B. petrii as sole source of carbon and energy (data not shown), probably due to the absence of a ferredoxin reductase encoding gene within the salicylate 5-hydroxylase encoding gene cluster (Bpet2804-2806 cluster), and an incomplete paaZ gene in the phenylacetate catabolic gene cluster (Bpet 1923–1935). 4-hydroxyphenylacetate is used as sole source of carbon and energy (data not shown), even though no gene with similarity to those encoding 4-hydroxyphenylacetate 3-hydroxylase was found in the genome (see Methods for experimental details).