Metabolic characterization of newly isolated Pseudomonas nitroreducens Jin1 growing on eugenol and isoeugenol

Newly isolated soil bacterium strain Jin1 was able to grow on both eugenol and isoeugenol each as sole source of carbon and energy. Based on bacterial 16S rDNA analysis, Jin1 belongs to Pseudomonas nitroreducens with a similarity of 98.92% (14/1297). P. nitroreducens Jin1 was found to biotransform eugenol and isoeugenol to vanillin by different pathways. Eugenol was biotransformed to vanillin through coniferyl alcohol and ferulic acid similarly to the pathway shown previously by Pseudomonassp. HR199 and vanillin produced from eugenol was rapidly metabolized to vanillic acid. Contrastively, Pseudomonas nitroreducens Jin1 did not appear to produce metabolic intermediates during the biotransformation of isoeugenol to vanillin which was finally biotransformed to vanillic acid with much slower rate. These results indicate that there seems to be different metabolic regulation systems for the biotransformation of eugenol and isoeugenol by this bacterium. Herein, we report on Pseudomonas nitroreducens Jin1, a novel bacterium that produces vanillin from eugenol and isoeugenol by two different metabolic pathways.