Glycine Betaine Monooxygenase, an Unusual Rieske-Type Oxygenase System, Catalyzes the Oxidative -Demethylation of Glycine Betaine in Chromohalobacter salexigens DSM 3043.

Although some bacteria, including DSM 3043, can use glycine betaine (GB) as a sole source of carbon and energy, little information is available about the genes and their encoded proteins involved in the initial step of the GB degradation pathway. In the present study, the results of conserved domain analysis, construction of in-frame deletion mutants, and an functional complementation assay suggested that the open reading frames Csal_1004 and Csal_1005, designated and , respectively, may act as the terminal oxygenase and the ferredoxin reductase genes in a novel Rieske-type oxygenase system to convert GB to dimethylglycine in DSM 3043. To further verify their function, BmoA and BmoB were heterologously overexpressed in , and C nuclear magnetic resonance analysis revealed that dimethylglycine was accumulated in BL21(DE3) expressing BmoAB or BmoA.

Genome Sequence of the Fructan-Degrading Organism Marinimicrobium sp. Strain LS-A18, Isolated from a Marine Solar Saltern.

Marinimicrobium sp. strain LS-A18 is a fructan-degrading organism isolated from a brine sample from a marine solar saltern in Jiaozhou Bay, China. The draft genome sequence of this bacterium is 3,815,107 bp in length, with a G+C content of 59.