BACKGROUND The introduction and maintenance of plasmids in cells is often associated with a reduction of growth rate. The reason for this growth reduction is unclear in many cases. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We observed a surprisingly large reduction in growth rate of about 50% of Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 during methylotrophic growth in the presence of a plasmid, pCM80 expressing t...

Pink-pigmented facultatively methylotrophic bacteria (PPFMs), classified as Methylobacterium spp., are persistent colonizers of plant leaf surfaces. Reports of PPFM-plant dialogue led us to examine cytokinin production by PPFMs. Using immunoaffinity and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) purification, we obtained 22 to 111 ng of trans-zeatin per liter from culture filtrates of four P...

During growth on one-carbon (C1) compounds, the aerobic alpha-proteobacterium Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 synthesizes the tetrahydromethanopterin (H4MPT) derivative dephospho-H4MPT as a C1 carrier in addition to tetrahydrofolate. The enzymes involved in dephospho-H4MPT biosynthesis have not been identified in bacteria. In archaea, the final step in the proposed pathway of H4MPT biosynthesis...

Methylobacterium extorquens AM1, a serine cycle facultative methylotroph, accumulates poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) as a carbon and energy reserve material during growth on both multicarbon- and single-carbon substrates. Recently, the identification and mutation of the genes involved in the biosynthesis and degradation of PHB have been described for this bacterium, demonstrating that two of t...

Methylotrophs bacteria are ubiquitous, and they have the ability to consume single carbon (C1) which makes them biological conversion machines. It is first study find facultative methylotrophic in contaminated soils Iraq. Conventional PCR was employed amplify MxaF that encodes methanol dehydrogenase enzyme. DNA templates were extracted from isolated five sites Basra. The gene specific detected ...

Monomethylamine (MMA, CH3NH2) can be used as a carbon and nitrogen source by many methylotrophic bacteria. Methylobacterium extorquens DM4 lacks the MMA dehydrogenase encoded by mau genes, which in M. extorquens AM1 is essential for growth on MMA. Identification and characterization of minitransposon mutants with an MMA-dependent phenotype showed that strain DM4 grows with MMA as the sole sourc...

Methanopterin is a folate analog involved in the C1 metabolism of methanogenic archaea, sulfate-reducing archaea, and methylotrophic bacteria. Although a pathway for methanopterin biosynthesis has been described in methanogens, little is known about the enzymes and genes involved in the biosynthetic pathway. The enzyme beta-ribofuranosylaminobenzene 5'-phosphate synthase (beta-RFAP synthase) ca...

This is the first report on a systematic method for constructing a large scale kinetic metabolic model and its initial application to the modeling of central metabolism of Methylobacterium extorquens AM1, a methylotrophic and environmental important bacterium. Its central metabolic network includes formaldehyde metabolism, serine cycle, citric acid cycle, pentose phosphate pathway, gluconeogens...