Steroid transformations by a strain of Arthrobacter oxydans incapable of steroid ring degradation

✍ Scribed by Utpal Sarmah; Monoj K. Roy; Dr. H. Devendra Singh

• Book ID: 102391896
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 456 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0233-111X
• DOI: 10.1002/jobm.3620290206

✦ Synopsis

Arihrobacter oxydans 317 which is able to bring about the complete degradation of 8-sitosterol was treated with acridine orange to obtain a plasmid cured strain Arthrobacter 31 7AL, incapable of producing steroid ring degradation. The strain was neither able to form 4-androstene-3,l 7-dione(AD) from 1-sitosterol nor to convert AD to 1,4-androstadiene-3,17-dione(ADD). It was, however, able to hydroxylate AD and ADD at the C-17 position to form testosterone and 1 ,Candrostadiene-l7~-0l-3-one respectively. The strain could grow on psitosterol presumably utilizing the degradation products of the sterol side chain. Partial degradation of the p-sitosterol side chain was demonstrated by the isolation of 27-norcholest-4-en-3,24-dione, a metabolic product of the side chain degradation. The existence of metabolic blocks in a further degradation of the side chain to AD, in 1,2-dehydrogenation and 9a-hydroxylation of the steroid ring structure was postulated.