Molecular characterization of three 3-ketosteroid-Δ(1)-dehydrogenase isoenzymes of Rhodococcus ruber strain Chol-4.

Rhodococcus ruber strain Chol-4 isolated from a sewage sludge sample is able to grow on minimal medium supplemented with steroids, showing a broad catabolic capacity. This paper reports the characterization of three different 3-ketosteroid-Δ(1)-dehydrogenases (KstDs) in the genome of R. ruber strain Chol-4.

The strengths and weaknesses of Gordonia: a review of an emerging genus with increasing biotechnological potential.

This review about the genus Gordonia provides a current overview of recent research on a young genus that was introduced in the year 1997 ( Stackebrandt et al., 1997 ). This emerging genus has attracted increasing environmental, industrial, biotechnological and medical interest during the last few years, in particular due to the capabilities of its members to degrade, transform, and synthesize organic compounds as well as to the pathogenic effects that have been described in many case studies.

Cholesterol degradation by Gordonia cholesterolivorans.

This paper reports physiological and genetic data about the type strain Gordonia cholesterolivorans, a strain that is able to degrade steroid compounds containing a long carbon side chain such as cholesterol (C(27)), cholestenone (C(27)), ergosterol (C(28)), and stigmasterol (C(29)). The length of the carbon side chain appears to be of great importance for this bacterium, as the strain is unable to grow using steroids with a shorter or nonaliphatic carbon side chain such as cholic acid (C(24)), progesterone (C(21)), testosterone, androsterone, 4-androstene-3,17-dione (all C(19)), and further steroids. This study also demonstrates that the degradation of cholesterol is a quite common feature of the genus Gordonia by comparing Gordonia cholesterolivorans with some other species of this genus (e.

ChoG is the main inducible extracellular cholesterol oxidase of Rhodococcus sp. strain CECT3014.

Cholesterol catabolism has been reported in different bacteria and particularly in several Rhodococcus species, but the genetic of this complex pathway is not yet very well defined. In this work we report the isolation and sequencing of a 9.8 kb DNA fragment of Rhodococcus sp.