Plackett-Burman design was used for selection of important media components such as carbon and nitrogen sources and minerals which affect poly(hydroxybutyrate) production and cell growth of Methylobacterium extorquens DSMZ 1340. Among the studied variables, nitrogen and phosphorus sources, MgSO4 and most of the trace elements were found to be significant variables for PHB product...

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...

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...

UNLABELLED Endophytes are microbes that inhabit plant tissues without any apparent signs of infection, often fundamentally altering plant phenotypes. While endophytes are typically studied in plant roots, where they colonize the apoplast or dead cells, Methylobacterium extorquens strain DSM13060 is a facultatively intracellular symbiont of the meristematic cells of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris ...

ccr encoding crotonyl coenzyme A (CoA) reductase (CCR), which catalyzes the conversion of crotonyl-CoA to butyryl-CoA in the presence of NADPH, was previously cloned from Streptomyces collinus. We now report that a complete open reading frame, designated meaA, is located downstream from ccr. The predicted gene product showed 35% identity with methylmalonyl-CoA mutases from various sources. In a...