Special Issue Article
Oxic and Anoxic Metabolism of Steroids by Bacteria
| Wael Ismail1 and Yin-Ru Chiang2* | |
| 1Biotechnology Program, College of Graduate Studies, Arabian Gulf University, Al-Manamah, Kingdom of Bahrain | |
| 2Microbiology Laboratory, Graduate Institute of Natural Products, College of Medicine, Chang-Gung University, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan | |
| Corresponding Author : | Dr. Yin-Ru Chiang Microbiology Laboratory Graduate Institute of Natural Products College of Medicine, Chang-Gung University 259 Wen-Hwa 1st Road Tao-Yuan, Taiwan Tel: 886-3-2118800 ext. 5372 Fax: 886-3- 2118421 E-mail: yinru915@mail.cgu.edu.tw |
| Received Spetember 05, 2011; Accepted November 03, 2011; Published November 11, 2011 | |
| Citation: Sahli E, Tekeli O (2012) Evaluation of Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness with Spectral Domain Oct in Primary 天美传媒 Angle Glaucoma and Ocular Hypertension. J Clin Exp Ophthalmol 3:247. doi: 10.4172/2155-6199.S1-001 | |
| Copyright: © 2011 Ismail W, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
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Abstract
Steroid compounds are produced by eukaryotes where they have a variety of chemical structures and play important physiological roles. Many bacteria are capable of transforming and completely degrading steroids under various growth conditions. The microbial metabolism of steroids has gained considerable interest due to its potential applications in industrial and environmental biotechnology. The oxic degradation pathways of steroids and some of the involved enzymes are well characterized. The key players in these pathways are oxygenases which depend on dioxygen as a co-substrate. On the contrary, much less is known about the mechanisms operating under anoxic conditions. Obviously, anoxic bacterial metabolism of steroids should proceed via oxygenase-independent reactions. So far, a few bacteria that can completely degrade steroids in the absence of oxygen were characterized. Surprisingly, all of them belong to denitrifying bacteria and utilize only nitrate as the alternative electron acceptor. Recent studies of anoxic metabolism of steroids using denitrifying bacteria revealed unique and interesting biochemical reactions and enzymes. Here we discuss the current understanding of the biochemistry and molecular biology of bacterial steroid metabolism under anoxic conditions. The aerobic metabolism of steroids is briefly presented for the sake of comparison. Future investigations on anoxic metabolism of steroids will unravel novel aspects of the regulation and evolution of catabolic pathways as well as unprecedented biocatalysts with useful applications in biotechnology.
