Identification of genetic elements from A. orientalis contributing to triphenylmethane decolorization

Crystal violet is a triphenylmethane dye which is commonly used in the clothing industry to dye wool, silk and cotton (Kim et al., 2005).While knowledge of the genes and enzymes involved in the biodegradation of this dye is restricted; the mechanistic pathway of its break down is well understood. Yatome and colleagues (1993) were the first to elucidate the degradation of crystal violet by Nocardia sp., identifying the main product as Michler s ketone. Chen and coworkers (2007) were able to elucidate the biodegradation pathway of crystal violet by Pseudomonas putida and concluded that the dye is broken down by demethylation. Similarly, Kumar and colleagues (2011) found that Aspergillus sp. decolorized methyl violet using the same mechanism.Jang and colleagues (2005) were the first to report on the cloning of a triphenylmethane reductase gene (TMR) isolated from the Gram negative Citrobacter sp. KCTC 18061P.The sequence did not show similarity to proteins of known functions hence they proposed that ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 2 Number 6 (2013) pp. 41-56 http://www.ijcmas.com