KdgF, the missing link in the microbial metabolism of uronate sugars from pectin and alginate.

ABSTRACT: Uronates are charged sugars that form the basis of two abundant sources of biomass-pectin and alginate-found in the cell walls of terrestrial plants and marine algae, respectively. These polysaccharides represent an important source of carbon to those organisms with the machinery to degrade them. The microbial pathways of pectin and alginate metabolism are well studied and essentially parallel; in both cases, unsaturated monouronates are produced and processed into the key metabolite 2-keto-3-deoxygluconate (KDG). The enzymes required to catalyze each step have been identified within pectinolytic and alginolytic microbes; yet the function of a small ORF, kdgF, which cooccurs with the genes for these enzymes, is unknown. Here we show that KdgF catalyzes the conversion of pectin- and alginat

SUBMITTER: Hobbs JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4896693 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature