Degradation of citronellol, citronellal and citronellyl acetate by Pseudomonas mendocina IBPse 105

Daniela Tozoni
Instituto de Biotecnologia
Universidade de Caxias do Sul
R. Francisco G. Vargas 1130
Caxias do Sul, RS, Brazil

Jucimar Zacaria
Instituto de Biotecnologia
Universidade de Caxias do Sul
R. Francisco G. Vargas 1130
Caxias do Sul, RS, Brazil

Regina Vanderlinde
Instituto de Biotecnologia
Universidade de Caxias do Sul
R. Francisco G. Vargas 1130
Caxias do Sul, RS, Brazil

Ana Paula Longaray Delamare
Universidade de Caxias do Sul
R. Francisco G. Vargas 1130
Caxias do Sul, RS, Brazil

Sergio Echeverrigaray*
Universidade de Caxias do Sul
R. Francisco G. Vargas 1130
Caxias do Sul, RS, Brazil
E-mail: selaguna@ucs.br

*Corresponding author

Financial support: COREDES/FAPERGS, and D. Tozoni held a CAPES scholarship during the development of this work.

Keywords: biodegradation, citronellol catabolism, monoterpenes degradation, P. mendocina.

The purpose of this work was to stud the biodegradation of citronellol, citronellal and citronellyl acetate by a soil Pseudomonas mendocina strain (IBPse 105) isolated from a Cymbopogon windelandi field. This strain efficiently used citronellol, citronellal, citronellyl acetate and myrcene as sole source of carbon, but was not able to grow on other 15 monoterpenoids evaluated. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of metabolites accumulation during P. medocina IBPse 105 growth on citronellol showed that this strain uses the citronellol catabolic pathway described for other species of the genus. IBPse 105 degradation of citronellyl acetate initiates by its hydrolysis to citronellol. The mini-Tn5 insertion in mutant IBPse 105-303, impaired in citronellol degradation, but able to grow on citronellal, was located in a homologous of the P. aeruginosa atuB gene, that codifies citronellol deshydrogenase.