Comparative Analysis of Bile-Salt Degradation in sp. Strain Chol11 and Pseudomonas stutzeri Strain Chol1 Reveals Functional Diversity of Proteobacterial Steroid Degradation Enzymes and Suggests a Novel Pathway for Side Chain Degradation.

The reaction sequence for aerobic degradation of bile salts by environmental bacteria resembles degradation of other steroid compounds. Recent findings show that bacteria belonging to the use a pathway variant for bile-salt degradation. This study addresses this so-called Δ-variant by comparative analysis of unknown degradation steps in sp.