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Unusual reactions involved in anaerobic metabolism of phenolic compounds

  • Matthias Boll and Georg Fuchs
Published/Copyright: October 12, 2005
Biological Chemistry
From the journal Volume 386 Issue 10

Abstract

Aerobic bacteria use molecular oxygen as a common co-substrate for key enzymes of aromatic metabolism. In contrast, in anaerobes all oxygen-dependent reactions are replaced by a set of alternative enzymatic processes. The anaerobic degradation of phenol to a non-aromatic product involves enzymatic processes that are uniquely found in the aromatic metabolism of anaerobic bacteria: (i) ATP-dependent phenol carboxylation to 4-hydroxybenzoate via a phenylphosphate intermediate (biological Kolbe-Schmitt carboxylation); (ii) reductive dehydroxylation of 4-hydroxybenzoyl-CoA to benzoyl-CoA; and (iii) ATP-dependent reductive dearomatization of the key intermediate benzoyl-CoA in a ‘Birch-like’ reduction mechanism. This review summarizes the results of recent mechanistic studies of the enzymes involved in these three key reactions.

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Published Online: 2005-10-12
Published in Print: 2005-10-01

©2005 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York

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