Methanol is already an important carbon feedstock in the chemical industry, but it has found only limited application in biotechnological production processes. This can be mostly attributed to the inability of most microbial platform organisms to utilize methanol as a carbon and energy source. With the aim to turn methanol into a suitable feedstock for microbial production processes, we enginee...

We describe five novel Methylophilaceae ecotypes from a single ecological niche in Lake Washington, USA, and compare them to three previously described ecotypes, in terms of their phenotype and genome sequence divergence. Two of the ecotypes appear to represent novel genera within the Methylophilaceae. Genome-based metabolic reconstruction highlights metabolic versatility of Methylophilaceae wi...

Formate dehydrogenase has traditionally been assumed to play an essential role in energy generation during growth on C(1) compounds. However, this assumption has not yet been experimentally tested in methylotrophic bacteria. In this study, a whole-genome analysis approach was used to identify three different formate dehydrogenase systems in the facultative methylotroph Methylobacterium extorque...

Hyphomicrobium strain WC, Pseudomonas strain TP-1, and Pseudomonas strain W1 are capable of growth on methanol as the sole source of carbon and energy. Methanol-grown cells of each organism contain a primary alcohol dehydrogenase that has been purified to homogeneity. Each enzyme has a molecular weight of 120,000 and shows an in vitro requirement for phenazine methosulfate and ammonium ions for...

An 8.6 kDa protein, which the authors call a modifin, has been purified from Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath) and has been shown to alter the substrate specificity and kinetics of NAD+-linked formaldehyde dehydrogenase (FDH) isolated from the same organism. Purification methods for both the modifin and FDH are presented which reliably produced pure protein for further analysis. Analysis of the m...

Bassia latifolia bud and Cajanus cajan seed were evaluated for anti-fertility activity in mature female mice. Anti-fertility activity was evaluated by observing the estrus cycle, body weight, wet weight of ovaries, steroidogenic enzymes, and substrates. Bassia latifolia bud and Cajanus cajan seed extract arrested normal oestrous cycle at dioestrous stage. The decrease in weight of ovar...

Representatives of the genus Beijerinckia are known as heterotrophic, dinitrogen-fixing bacteria which utilize a wide range of multicarbon compounds. Here we show that at least one of the currently known species of this genus, i.e., Beijerinckia mobilis, is also capable of methylotrophic metabolism coupled with the ribulose bisphosphate (RuBP) pathway of C1 assimilation. A complete suite of deh...

A large number of methanol-utilizing bacteria were screened for extracellular production of pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) by using methanol as the carbon and energy sources. Of the bacteria selected, Hyphomicrobium sp. strain TK 0441 was examined for PQQ production by using a jar fermentor. The amount of PQQ in the broth and the level of methanol dehydrogenase activity in the cells were increa...

The natural plasmid pBM19 carries the key mdh gene needed for the oxidation of methanol into formaldehyde by Bacillus methanolicus. Five more genes, glpX, fba, tkt, pfk, and rpe, with deduced roles in the cell primary metabolism, are also located on this plasmid. By using real-time PCR, we show that they are transcriptionally upregulated (6- to 40-fold) in cells utilizing methanol; a similar in...