Carnitine metabolism to trimethylamine by an unusual Rieske-type oxygenase from human microbiota.

ABSTRACT: Dietary intake of L-carnitine can promote cardiovascular diseases in humans through microbial production of trimethylamine (TMA) and its subsequent oxidation to trimethylamine N-oxide by hepatic flavin-containing monooxygenases. Although our microbiota are responsible for TMA formation from carnitine, the underpinning molecular and biochemical mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, using bioinformatics approaches, we first identified a two-component Rieske-type oxygenase/reductase (CntAB) and associated gene cluster proposed to be involved in carnitine metabolism in representative genomes of the human microbiota. CntA belongs to a group of previously uncharacterized Rieske-type proteins and has an unusual "bridging" glutamate but not the aspartate residue, which is believed to facilitat

SUBMITTER: Zhu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3964110 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature