BACKGROUND cis, cis-Muconic acid is an important chemical that can be biosynthesized from simple substrates in engineered microorganisms. Recently, it has been shown that engineering microbial cocultures is an emerging and promising approach for biochemical production. In this study, we aim to explore the potential of the E. coli-E. coli coculture system to use a single renewable carbon source,...

Pseudomonas fluorescens was grown on mineral salts media with phenol, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, p-hydroxy-phenylacetic acid, or p-hydroxy-trans-cinnamic acid as sole carbon and energy source. Each compound was first hydroxylated, ortho to the hydroxyl group on the benzene ring, to give catechol, protocatechuic acid (3,4-dihydroxy-benzoic acid), homoprotocatechuic acid (3,4-dihydroxy-phenylacetic a...

Adipic acid is an important industrial chemical used in the synthesis of nylon-6,6. The commercial synthesis of adipic acid uses petroleum-derived benzene and releases significant quantities of greenhouse gases. Biocatalytic production of adipic acid from renewable feedstocks could potentially reduce the environmental damage and eliminate the need for fossil fuel precursors. Recently, we have d...

A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method for measurement of the main urinary metabolites of benzene, namely, phenol, catechol, hydroquinone, 1,2,4-trihydroxybenzene (trihydroxybenzene), t,t-muconic acid (muconic acid), and S-phenylmercapturic acid (phenylmercapturic acid), is reported. The method is considerably simpler than existing assays. It was applied to urine from benzene-exposed sub...

We used natural spline (NS) models to investigate nonlinear relationships between levels of benzene metabolites (E,E-muconic acid, S-phenylmercapturic acid, phenol, hydroquinone, and catechol) and benzene exposure among 386 exposed and control workers in Tianjin, China. After adjusting for background levels (estimated from the 60 control subjects with the lowest benzene exposures), expected mea...

The fate of benzene in the body has been the subject of numerous investigations since 1867 when Schultzen & Naunyn (1867) discovered that benzene was converted to phenol in the animal body. Phenol, catechol, quinol and their conjugates (Munk, 1876; Schmiedeberg, 1881; Nencki & Giacosa, 1880; Baernstein, 1945), muconic acid (Jaffe, 1909; Thierfelder & Klenk, 1924; Drummond & Finar, 1938; Bernhar...

18O labeling studies on the catechol 1,2-dioxygenase-catalyzed oxidative cleavage of pyrogallol demonstrate that the enzyme functions both as a dioxygenase and a monooxygenase in this reaction. Two products are observed, 2-pyrone-6-carboxylic acid, 99% singly labeled at the carboxylate, and 2-hydroxy-cis,cis-muconic acid, 74% doubly labeled (one 18O at each carboxylate) and 24% single labeled (...

This report describes a specific and precise high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the quantification of trans,trans-muconic acid in human urine. The procedure involved a highly efficient Bond-Elut SAX extraction with 20% acetic acid elution. The HPLC analysis used a sodium acetate/methanol mobile phase with a C18 reverse phase column and UV detection at 265 nm. The recovery,...